In Tampa Bay’s scorching summers, it is essential to "keep your cool." And unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have noticed that frozen yogurt shops are popping up all over. This is a fairly new trend and has put a new, retro spin on the frozen yogurt frenzy of the 1980s. Introducing the self-serve yogurt revolution.
It began in 1981 with Frank Hickingbotham’s creation of TCBY (The Country’s Best Yogurt), which was marketed as the healthy, guilt-free alternative to ice cream. Since many people associated yogurt with an unpleasant aftertaste, TCBY derailed that pre-conceived notion. Before long, yogurt mania gripped the nation, peaking in the mid to late 1980s. Even Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney was a spokesman for the new-fangled treat. Another selling point was that ice cream contained ten to twenty percent fat, whereas TCBY's yogurt only had four percent fat. It seemed as though yogurt was here to stay. Then, out of nowhere, yogurt shops became as scarce as snowmen in Florida.
