derryX desserts: TCBY – Guilderland, NY

Posted on by derryX

Nobody eats yogurt as much as I do. I start every single day with a 6 oz cup of Greek yogurt.

Nobody eats ice cream as much as I do. Even after moving 35 minutes away, I made a weekly trip to Snowman Ice Cream in Brunswick just to satiate that urge for a huge dish of ice cream jammed with toppings.

Well, right in my neighborhood, corporate America has decided to blob together both of these models for me, and opened TCBY. It opened last week at 1512 Western Avenue, immediately next door to a Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and a hop, skip, and jump away from Stuyvesant Plaza.

This could be dangerous.

I stopped in one evening during their Grand Opening festivities.

There was a fun little dumb car to commemorate the grand opening.

I never got to try TCBY in the 90s. I was just too young and didn’t have the pull to persuade my parents away from real ice cream.

The way they do it now is to let you do whatever you want to a cup of their yogurt (I don’t know how they did it before). You serve your own yogurt into a cup; they give you a 16 oz or a 22 oz cup. You have to be careful. Frozen yogurt (plus whatever toppings you add) is $0.49 per ounce, so, if you fill the cup all the way to level to the top (assuming everything you put inside has the same density – mass/volume), you’ve essentially filled 16 oz and will pay $8; you will also be obligated to eat 1 pound of stuff. That is kind of a lot for ice cream, whoops, I mean frozen yogurt.

They have a variety of flavors, and you will really need to do some trial and error to figure out what you like. My recommendation: stick to the flavors to the right. These are the “nonfat” flavors, and have taste great, especially the nonfat Classic Tart, which you will think tastes like sour cream but I can assure you tastes exactly how frozen yogurt should taste. It’s not even like the flavors on the left have much more fat than the nonfat (which, if you look at the nutritional information, still show calories from fat even though there are technically 0 grams of fat –I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to say it has 4 grams of fat, rounded to the nearest integer, 0.), but don’t forget, there’s a toppings bar, and you can go bonkers loading up your yogurt.

Here’s what I did:

I took about 2-3 oz of Coffee, 2-3 oz of nonfat Cookies + Cream, 2-3 oz of nonfat classic tart and loaded each region with brownie, snickers + mini Reeses Pieces, and fresh raspberries, respectively. I also put some no sugar hot fudge on top of everything. Notice: I didn’t over do it. I think this was about 14 oz total, and the deal that day was that the first 3 oz were free, so this was between 3 and 4 bucks (would have been between 5 and 6).

It isn’t cheap, but you can do whatever you want. You want to eat pounds of yogurt by itself, go for it. You want a dollop of yogurt or sorbet with pounds of walnuts, have at it.

I went back the next day for a second try and to inquire about nutrition information for my own edification. They eagerly gave me a sheet of nutritional information for most of the flavors they offer.

The way the spreadsheet is laid out is not great, but it does the job. On my trips, they had the mountain blackberry, which I sampled and is actually really good. This choice has the least sugar and fat calories. The manager assured me it is not sweetened with artificial sweeteners, so this is your best bet if you are trying to stay lean.

I say, if you are trying to stay lean, start with this, and go have some fun at the toppings bar. You have to live a little too, and a little bit of fruit, nuts, and a small amount of candy isn’t going to kill you.

Enjoy!

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6 thoughts on “derryX desserts: TCBY – Guilderland, NY”

  • Valerae

    You say you’re a fan of Greek Yogurt – have you had it from Argyle Cheese Farmer? I’ve never liked plain yogurt until I tried their plain Greek. They have a couple of sweetened kinds as well – but their plain Greek yogurt is to die for.

    I used to like TCBY was a kid. It was one of the few places where you could get one of those dipped and sprinkled waffle cones. So here’s my question – everyone is saying the toppings are self serve – are you skeeved out by that at all? I can be a bit of germaphobe and the idea of everyone touching those handles – especially with cold season upon us, grosses me out. It probably shouldn’t – I’ve seen worse hygiene from folks who work behind the counter too.


    • derryX

      I have tried Argyle. Very good.

      It’s natural to be skeeved out by the buffet style, but, in their defense, there are people literally in the way wiping down and fixing the displays constantly. I don’t think it has a chance to get totally disgusting. There’s not much you can do about that “what did the last person who touched this scoup touch?” feeling, though.


  • Kristi

    We went and I liked it but I really, really miss the cone.


  • Darth

    In the 90’s, TCBY (when it was all caps), was more like a Carvel. They had like 4 or 5 machines, each with 2 flavors and a twist option. Chocolate and French Vanilla I believe was always offered, in regular and in low fat. They’d rotate the other flavors weekly. You could get cups or cones like at Carvel. The toppings were a bit on the healthier side – I don’t remember there being any chocolate or Reese’s options. Stuff like nuts, granola, etc. I believe they also made Frozen Yogurt cakes, and sold pints to take home.

    However, if you seriously want the best frozen yogurt ever – go to a Cefiore. The only one I’ve ever seen is across Hollywood Blvd from the Chinese Theater in California. There is apparently one in Vegas. None on the east coast unfortunately. It is seriously the best frozen yogurt EVER. My wife and I want to go back to that part of California if we ever go back out west just for that yogurt.


  • Shannon

    Hi. I have a quick question for you about frozen yogurt. I have never eaten it before but I wanted to know, what’s the difference between fro yo and regular ice cream? Taste difference & health difference? Thank you.


    • derryX

      As far as I know, the main difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt is the fact that one is that ice cream is generally made from cream or a mixture of cream with milk. To my limited knowledge, frozen yogurt is exactly the same, but made from yogurt, which has the health benefits of probiotics that cream doesn’t. I cannot speak to how much of those probiotics survive the freezing (and thawing in your body), but the result is nominally a product that’s at least lower in fat.

      Of course, you have to be careful of what is sweetening the stuff, because if they’re using fructose corn syrup, the lowfat benefit will be offset by that.

      Taste wise, you’ll have to try it to understand. As you probably know, vanilla ice cream can taste completely different from place to place and even different yet if you talk soft serve vs hard, etc. Vanilla frozen yogurt, to me, tastes almost like vanilla soft serve. That’s why I like the “classic tart” TCBY flavor; it has a unique sour flavor that I’ve never encountered with ice cream.

      Go down to TCBY; they’ll be happy to give you a sample of anything!


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