Swizzles Frozen Yogurt Opens to Huge Crowds

There were already 30 people waiting in line when the Winchester branch of Swizzles Frozen Yogurt opened its doors to the public for the first time on Saturday morning, according to CEO Adam Kessner.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better day,” one customer said to Kessner, who agreed heartily.  The day was a balmy one for January, with highs in the 50s.

Families arrived in droves, parking tricycles and strollers outside the front doors and entering a shop already filled with people. By mid-afternoon, Kessner estimated 400 customers had already come through.

Manager Lori Smith said the Swizzles opening was eagerly anticipated, noting people had been stopping by the shop for a few weeks now, asking when they were opening.

Swizzles is a self-serve frozen yogurt shop, where customers can choose from a rotating selection of frozen yogurt flavors, then add their own toppings. Kessner said they rotate through about 25 flavors, with 10 on tap at any given time, including six standards that don’t change. On opening day, flavors included cake batter, Irish mint, angel food cake, and cookies and cream, in addition to standards like chocolate and vanilla.

There are also a variety of wet and dry toppings, from fresh fruit to candy pieces to brownie and cookie dough bites. Everything is self-serve, unless you’d like your creation blended into what Kessner calls, not surprisingly, the Swizzle. At the cash register, each frozen yogurt creation is weighed and charged by the ounce.

Since self-serve frozen yogurt is fairly new to this area, Kessner said there’s a fair amount of customer education in the beginning. Earlier that day, he said, one man came up to the cash register to pay but he didn’t have any frozen yogurt to weigh. So Kessner walked him through the process.

Winchester resident Joe McCabe was among crowd on Saturday, helping his three young children serve their frozen yogurt and put on their toppings. He said he lives right down the street and the kids had been asking when Swizzles would open.

“It’s cool. It’s not that expensive. I mean, three ice creams under $10,” McCabe said, motioning toward the three cups of frozen yogurt in front of his kids, ages 5, 3 and 1. 

For Kessner, the best part of owning a frozen yogurt shop is seeing the joy his customers get from pulling the handle on the machine.

“Everyone comes out with a smile on their face,” Kessner said

And, for those colder winter days surely coming, Swizzles also sells hot chocolate, hot apple cider and hot tea.