Best Frozen Yogurt/Ice Cream

LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Sundaes, hurricanes, shakes, ice cream sandwiches and Handel pops are on the menu if a cone doesn’t fulfill your ice cream needs.

1. Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt

Multiple locations; handelsicecream.com

Handel’s has been scooping muchloved ice cream since 1945 when Alice Handel created this ice cream brand in Youngstown, Ohio, using fresh fruit from her backyard garden and her own recipes. Handel’s ice cream became a neighborhood favorite and is still a popular sweet treat today.

Handel’s stores offer dozens of flavors, from banana cream pie to black cherry to cinnamon roll to peanut butter parfait to pineapple upside-down cake. There are also vegan, fat-free and sugarfree options and sorbets, including pink champagne sorbet and vegan apricot sorbet.

Patrons can enjoy a cake cone, sugar cone, waffle cone (hand-dipped in chocolate or not), or a waffle bowl. There’s an option to make it a sundae by adding caramel, marshmallow, strawberry, peanut butter and hot fudge toppings, plus whipped cream and a cherry on top. And there’s Handel’s ice cream-on-a-stick treat: vanilla, chocolate or mint chocolate chip ice cream covered in gourmet chocolate and served on a stick. Another Handel’s original is their blended Hurricanes drinks.

Handel’s has over 80 stores in at least 10 states and several locations in Orange County, including in Newport Beach, Lake Forest, Laguna Nigel and Rancho Santa Margarita. A new local shop opened in February at The Market Place in Irvine.

2. Yogurtland

Multiple locations; www.yogurt-land.com

Yogurtland has made many “best of” lists, including being named among the Top Food Franchises by Entrepreneur magazine in 2019. Yogurtland opened its first store in Fullerton in 2006 and today has more than 250 locations in the United States and worldwide, including in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Orange, Irvine and Tustin.

“We are incredibly honored to win this award in Orange County which is our home. We are so happy to know that our guests love our frozen yogurt, as our mission is to share love, joy and hope with our guests. We sincerely thank our guests for the continued support,” said Yogurtland founder and CEO Phillip Chang.

Chang credited much of Yogurtland’s popularity to its flavors. “We have over 250 unique flavors developed by our highly trained flavorologists and food scientists. We continue to put a lot of love and care into developing new flavors, keeping our guests’ taste buds and market trends in mind. Such great recent flavors as Strawberry Mango Sorbet, Plant-Based Brown Sugar Vanilla and Lucky Irish Mint Cream arrived at our stores after going through a rigorous R&D and tasting process,” Chang said.

House of Yogurt in Costa Mesa, a family-owned business that opened in 2008, likes to brag that theirs is the store that made yogurt exciting again.

House of Yogurt offers 10 house flavors along with four special flavors that rotate. House flavors include standard favorites in the yogurt world like Fancy French Vanilla, Ghirardelli chocolate, salted caramel, cookies and cream and strawberry banana. House of Yogurt developed their own blends and secret recipes using real skim milk. If you prefer, they’ll transform your frozen yogurt treat into a smoothie.

House of Yogurt expressed their gratitude to all their customers when told of their win. “As a small family-run business, thank you to all of you who voted for us as (a) Best Frozen Yogurt destination in OC. ... Our goal is to make you feel right at home.”

3. House of Yogurt

369 East 17th St., Costa Mesa 949-335-5565; houseofyogurt.com