Every week we receive suggestions about how to make our company better — suggestions for which we are grateful. Customer feedback is essential and we read and listen to it all. One of the most popular questions we’re asked is, “Where can I find a list of ingredients?” Truthfully, this has been a constant challenge for us to answer. Listing ingredients seems like an easy enough exercise, but as we’ve come to find out, nothing in a small, consumer-facing business — especially one associated with food — is ever simple.

Here’s the dilemma: We rely on multiple suppliers to help us create each of our products, as well as distributors to get those products to us. Additionally, we pride ourselves in mixing our yogurts fresh in each store rather than using a generically processed and/or frozen product, as is the industry norm. We then take those products – each of which are made up of multiple ingredients themselves – and blend them to make our frozen yogurts and sorbets. Still seems relatively simple, right?

Well, let’s look at an easy example: To make our Banana flavor, we combine organic milk, organic Stonyfield yogurt, condensed milk, our base (which gives the product its consistency) and flavoring. That gets us:

When you add that together, it’s an overly complicated ingredient list that none of us want to see. Unfortunately, at the moment, it’s the best we can do. So that naturally begs the question, “How does a company like Haagen-Dazs offer its “Five” line of products using only five ingredients?” Well they don’t, really. They simply pay a food scientist to classify multiple types of ingredients (pure cane sugar, dextrose [or dry glucose] and maltodextrines) into broad buckets and simply label it “sugar,” for instance.

We could pay a food scientist some hefty sum to do the same – IF we used a contract manufacturer to blend our product offsite, certify it, dehydrate and/or freeze it and then redistribute it. This is incredibly expensive and has a multitude of problems in and of itself. Namely, we would be forced to continue using that same formula forever (or at least until we wanted to pay to re-certify it) and we would lose the ability to continually enhance it. Additionally, we would have less flexibility in creating new flavors and would no longer be able to offer a freshly blended product.

Further, we are constantly trying new, better, cleaner formulas and we often trial them in some of our stores and collect feedback. We want and need the flexibility to improve our formula because we’re not satisfied by where it is today. The more flexibility we have, the faster we can offer what we all want – a product able to be certified by the USDA as an Organic frozen yogurt.

So here’s what we’re going to do: In the next few days, we’ll add a new page to our website outlining the ingredients in each component of our frozen yogurt formula. In exchange, I’d like to request your help in getting us over the hurdle with our partners in several areas. Please share your voice in the comments section below.

Here are the current items we’re working to improve:

Despite these areas of development that are at the front of mind for Yoforia every day, it must not be lost that we do so many things right, despite the many obstacles we face. Our use of fresh organic milk and organic Stonyfield yogurt, along with mixing a fresh product, raises our food costs dramatically. Our Stevia-sweetened Dark Chocolate flavor is the industry standard for reduced-sugar frozen yogurt. The fact that we go to the extra effort to provide a real product – rather than relying on the mass producers of frozen yogurt most companies our size use – is a big deal.

Yoforia’s a company that truly cares about the products we offer and continues to improve daily. The more customer support we receive in our many initiatives, the faster we can bring them to market. I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on what we can do to improve, and to see what you can do to help, so please share your voice in the comments section below.

—Luke Tashie
Yoforia Chief Executive Officer

This program is in beta, so you can be one of the first people to try it out. By registering with Yoforia you will obtain your own universal unique 2D Bar Code that can be used to redeem promotions, obtain loyalty points, use as an electronic gift card and other great offers. The easiest way to carry your code around is right on your mobile device. Once you register you will receive an e-mail that has your own unique barcode attached. You can simply show this code on your mobile device screen to redeem offers.

Alternatively you can also print out the welcome e-mail you receive and bring it in to redeem as well. If you have a camera phone you can take a snapshot of the code. Be sure to include the entire code in the picture and make it as clear and focused as possible.

Be sure to keep up to date with our ongoing promotions at our promotions page.

Click here to learn more.

Yoforia was founded in 2007 and opened with three stores in the Atlanta area. The idea was to bring the new wave of frozen yogurt to the Southeast – but with the added benefit of organic milk and organic yogurt. Even as a new concept, Yoforia refused to cut corners and buy the pre-made mixes that are commonplace in the industry. After much R&D, consisting of literally weeks and months of trying new recipes in our founder’s garage, the base formula for Yoforia was perfected.

The first self-serve store was introduced in 2009 in the Vinings area of Atlanta to an overwhelming success. This was clearly the model for the future and provided Yoforia with the ability to build a few more stores. Several new stores were added over the next year and a half, enabling Yoforia’s entrance into North Carolina. It was at this time, in mid-2010, that I was first introduced to Yoforia on a date with my 3-year-old daughter. We loved the product and I wanted to be a part of the company.

At the time of my first Yoforia experience, I was looking to transition careers. Somewhat serendipitously, I received a call from a friend that knew Yoforia was looking for a CEO. Call it fate, but just a few short months later I was officially a part of the Yoforia team.

I not only loved the design of the store and the idea of a fun, young, growing company, but I loved that Yoforia’s roots were grounded in providing a superior product with the intention of using the best possible ingredients. As a father of three young girls and a very health conscious person myself, I appreciated what Yoforia was trying to do. I also knew that with the existing foundation of the company, I had an opportunity to continue to evolve the product and truly have an impact on the eating habits of a large number of consumers.

With no previous experience in the food industry and a strong passion for healthy eating, I was very naïve initially on how quickly I could advance the product. I thought that making changes would be simple, but I was quickly amazed at how difficult the industry standards made it to produce a perfect product. This is something that we battle daily and thus I anticipate this struggle being the basis for a large number of posts.

With 20 stores (and counting) currently in the US along with one of our first international stores opening shortly (I am actually writing this initial post from Kuwait while up early from jet lag for our initial opening), we have stayed busy since my first day here. We have made significant strides in bettering the product and will continue doing so every day. Again, a perfect product is our goal we will never stop working towards this.

I hope to use this as a forum for questions, suggestions and a discussion on Yoforia specifically and the food industry in general. I would love to hear about what is important to each of you as well, so please leave your comments below.

Thank you for your time and for being a Yoforia customer. I look forward to a healthy discussion in the future.

—Luke Tashie
Yoforia Chief Executive Officer

The holiday season has come and gone, but Vincent Pampena of Charlotte (pictured with son Michael) has been given a gift that will keep on giving throughout the new year. Pampena was the winner of the 12 Days of Yoforia grand prize, which gives him one free yogurt per week in 2012. You can watch his winning video submission on the bottom of the home page.

Actually, we’ve had another song stuck in our heads lately. We’ve been whistling the tune to “The 12 Days of Christmas” and it’s getting a bit stale. So we’re hoping some of our loyal fans can give it a different flavor. If you think you can help, you could win free yogurt for a YEAR!

Here’s the deal:

– We’re looking for videos of Yoforia fans singing the final verse of “The 12 Days of Christmas”, but with a twist!

– Since we’ve all heard the same words since we were young, the verse needs to include “refreshed” Yoforia-flavored lyrics.

– Fans can submit their videos on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/yoforia?sk=app_95936962634 or they can tweet it to us using @Yoforia.

– We’ll accept videos immediately, with the deadline set for 6 p.m. eastern time on Dec. 24.

– We’ll judge the videos and the one we consider the most creative will win free yogurt for a YEAR.

– We’ll announce the winner at 3 p.m. on Dec. 25

But that’s not all! Since we’re talking about 12 days, we’re going to give 12 days worth of presents!

Starting Dec. 14, we’ll run a contest for 11 straight days on our various social media channels. So make sure you LIKE us at www.facebook.com/yoforia, follow @Yoforia on Twitter and circle Yoforia’s Google Plus page for your chance to win great prizes!

We look forward to celebrating the 12 Days of Yoforia with you!

Click here for official rules and guidelines

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. INTERNET ACCESS IS REQUIRED TO ENTER.* 12 Days of Yoforia Contest (“Contest”) begins at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time (“ET”) on 12/5/11 and ends at 6:00 P.M. ET on 12/24/11 (“Contest Entry Period”).

*HOW TO ENTER:* (1) Follow @Yoforia on Twitter or “like” the Yoforia Facebook fanpage during the Contest Entry Period to receive directions for the twelve (12) contests.

(2) Entry may not have been published previously, must not be obscene or indecent and the use of the Entry by Yoforia (“Sponsor”) as outlined herein must not infringe upon any other person’s rights. Entries that include profanity, inappropriate or explicit language or demonstrate any lewd or sexually suggestive gestures or full or partial nudity, drug or alcoholic beverage use, any unsafe behavior or any other representations deemed inappropriate by Sponsor will be disqualified. All Entries become the property of Sponsor and none will be acknowledged or returned.

(3) Company names, trademarks and/or logos, other than those owned by Sponsor, may not be included in any Entry submitted. Any Entry submitted with any Third Party Intellectual Property, by way of example (a Team Leader or Team Member included in the Entry is wearing branded merchandise with any brand logo) may be disqualified if such use is deemed inappropriate, impermissible or illegal, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion.

(4) By submitting an Entry, each person: 1) irrevocably grants Sponsor the royalty-free right throughout the world to use, re-use, copy, publish, republish in whole or in part, edit, add to, modify, and rearrange the Entry in whatever media, including without limitation edit, rearrange, and/or copy the Entry for use in the promotion of Sponsor’s products and services, without further permission, consideration or payment to the Entrant, except where prohibited; 2) warrants and represents that the Entry is 100% the original creation/work by the Entrant and that use of the Entry as described herein will not violate any law or infringe upon the rights, title, claim or interest of any third party; and 3) certify that the entrant is the creator and sole copyright owner of any video.

(5) Sponsor and its parent, related, affiliated and subsidiary companies, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies and legal advisors and their respective officers, directors, agents, employees, and assigns (collectively, the “Released Parties”) are not responsible for any problems or technical, hardware, or software malfunctions of any telephone network or telephone lines, failed, incorrect, inaccurate, incomplete, garbled or delayed electronic communications whether caused by the sender or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Contest, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail or Entry to be received by the Sponsor due to technical problems, human error or traffic congestion, unavailable network connections on the Internet or at any website, or any

combination thereof, including, without limitation, any injury or damage to Entrant’s or any other person’s computer relating to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading any materials in this Contest. By submitting an Entry, Entrant agrees to abide by the terms of these Official Rules and the Privacy Policy.

*ELIGIBILITY:* This Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 16 years of age or older who are not: (i) represented under a music recording contract (e.g., by a talent agent or manager) either at the time of entry or at any time since 01/31/10; (ii) subject to an acting, modeling or any other contract that would make his/her appearance in the work a violation of any third-party rights; or (iii) under any other contractual relationship, including but not limited to any guild or union memberships, that would in any way limit or impair Sponsor’s ability to display or use his/her Entry, name, likeness or any work that he/she has created for the Contest in any media form, in perpetuity on a royalty-free basis, without any payment of fee obligations of any kind. Employees of Sponsor, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, sales representatives, advertising, promotion, and judging agencies and all other service agencies involved with this Contest, and members of the immediate families (parent, child, sibling and spouse) or households (whether or not related) of any of the above are not eligible.

*WINNER DETERMINATION:* A total of one Winner per day will be determined by the Sponsor. The judge’s decision will be final and binding. The winner will be notified through direct message or social media.

*ONE GRAND PRIZE:* The Grand Prize consists of the opportunity to have a Free Yogurt for a year. The Winner will receive one (1) free yogurt worth $5.00 in value each week in 2012. Should the Winner not redeem the free yogurt each week, it will expire. Should Sponsor decide to produce the Grand Prize Winning Entry as a commercial advertisement, the Grand Prize Winning Entrant acknowledges and agrees that he/she/ they will have no creative or financial involvement or input in the production of said commercial advertisement and will not receive any initial or residual payment or compensation for such production beyond the prize amounts stated herein. These Official Rules do not constitute an employment agreement.

*OTHER PRIZES:* The Contest will consist of 11 daily prizes and one Grand Prize. Entrants are limited to win one (1) daily prize and are also eligible to win the Grand Prize.

PRIVACY STATEMENT & OTHER LEGAL INFORMATION
EFFECTIVE December 5, 2011
The owner of this website is Yoforia, Inc. (or “we”), the term “you” refers to the viewer of this website.
We hope you will enjoy your experience at each YoforiaTM store and visit the stores and this site often. However, if you browse and use this site, you agree to the following terms and conditions. If you do not agree, you should not use this site.

PRIVACY STATEMENT AND TERMS OF USE
Yoforia, Inc. collects email addresses from individuals who voluntarily indicate that they would like to receive additional information from us about Yoforia store activities, menu items, special offers and similar matters. We will not sell, rent or trade your email address or any of the information noted above, if you give it to us. Please remember if you send any information by email, personal or otherwise, that email is not a secure form of communication and can be intercepted. We cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat any security measures that are in place or use your personal information for improper purposes.
No personal information is automatically collected from visitors to our site. We may from time to time collect certain non-personal information about visitors to our site, through direct questions, such as asking about your favorite Yoforia menu items, or by tracking certain operating information, like the browser you are using or the identity of your internet service provider (e.g., Yahoo, AOL, etc.). We and our affiliates and related companies can use this information generally to enhance and refine Yoforia store operations and product development and for internal and operating purposes. Other uses of this information may include internal review of the number of visitors to the site, but only in an aggregate and non-personally-identifiable form.
Our third party agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and related companies sometimes will have access to information collected on our site to fulfill Yoforia-related business objectives and purposes. We also have the right to use aggregated, anonymous data about our users as a group for our business purposes. Our website also may provide links to other third-party websites which are not under our control and are not covered by this policy. If you use the links, you do so at your own risk. We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these (and all) sites.
We notify visitors of changes to our privacy policy by changing the effective date on this page and on the text hyperlink to this policy.

INFORMATION FOR PARENTS ABOUT OUR PRIVACY POLICY
Our website policy is that visitors under 18 years of age should not submit or post any information on our web site.

COOKIES
We may store some information on our site visitorsʼ computers, which is a “cookie”. These cookies can be used to help us adjust the site to your preferences and interests. Your internet browser may offer ways to erase or block cookies, so refer to your browserʼs instructions for additional information on the availability of those features, if you are interested.

SITE USE AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The information contained on our website is provided AS IS, and without any express or implied warranty of any kind. We can change the information anytime, and you must understand that it could contain inaccuracies or errors. We try to keep your website running well, but do not warrant or guarantee its proper operation. You use this information and this website entirely at your own risk. This web site contains our intellectual property. Yoforia, Inc. is the exclusive owner of the Yoforia trademarks, logo,

trade dress and other identifiers. You must not use any of these trademarks or other identifiers without our express written permission. You also must not, without our express written permission, copy, modify, upload, publish, post or otherwise distribute the graphic displays or text, which are our exclusive property.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
We are not, and will not be, liable for any damage or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, delay in operation of transmission, computer virus, or line failure, or any other events. We have no liability for any damages or injury, including but not limited to, special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, this site and/or the information it contains. The above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you to the extent that applicable law may not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages.

Share the gift of Yoforia by giving those closest to you a Yoforia gift card this holiday season. Stop by one of our many locations and pick up a few today. They make great stocking stuffers. Don’t forget to ask about our T-Shirts and hats as well.

Guess what Yoforians...

We will soon be unveiling something “icy-hot” that will be available on Monday in Yoforia stores. Can you guess what it is? We’ll give you a hint (besides icy-hotness): it involves two seasonal treats that are getting rolled into a new unity of awesomeness. One of the treats is partially chocolate and the other treat has stripes.

Register to Win FREE Yogurt for a Year

Charlotte, NC (November 22, 2011) – Ace and TJ from the Ace and TJ Show will make a guest appearance at Yoforia’s EpiCentre location next Wednesday from noon – 2:00 p.m. Come join the radio duo and register to win FREE yogurt for a year. The winner will be announced on the air the following day.

Stay in the loop by joining Yoforia’s Facebook community at facebook.com/yoforia and following on Twitter (@yoforia).

YOFORIA OPEN FOR BUSINESS AT SECOND ATHENS LOCATION

Store is located next to the Georgia Theatre

Charlotte, NC (November 14, 2011) – North Carolina based Yoforia has opened its newest location in Athens, GA. The store is located at 142 West Clayton Street by the Georgia Theatre. It marks Yoforia’s second Athens location. The other store is located at 1210 South Milledge Avenue.

The store is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (706) 548-4388.

For more on Yoforia, including events, specials and giveaways, follow us at www.facebook.com/yoforia or www.twitter.com/yoforia.

About Yoforia

Yoforia, which has 19 locations in North Carolina and Georgia, focuses on providing a healthy and tasty frozen yogurt that’s made fresh every day. The all natural product uses organic milk and yogurt. The new store offers self-service with the availability of 12 different flavors and a toppings bar. The toppings bar features fresh cut fruit as well as candied options. For more information, visit www.yoforia.com.

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