Scoops to Superfoods: how frozen treat outlets became a consumer trend barometer

Summer is in full swing across the Southern Hemisphere while those in the north reach for jumpers and hot drinks.

"Frozen outlets are more than dessert counters - they’re a fascinating social indicator for how people balance wellness, joy and time."

Yet from Melbourne to Milan, the same ritual repeats outside the frozen counter - a line forming at the ice cream or gelato window, the fro-yo bar or the açaí bowl café.

Someone plays it safe with a vanilla scoop, someone builds a mountain of toppings and someone else points to the deep purple açaí and says, “that one.”

These tiny choices reflect bigger shifts in what consumers crave - nostalgia, novelty or nutrition.

Frozen outlets have become mini barometers for consumer taste, balancing health and indulgence while selling treats that are easy to carry, easy to share and well suited to meeting up - from teens and families to post-gym catch-ups.

What began in past decades as ice cream parlours is now a spread of gelato shops, frozen yoghurt chains, smoothie bars and açaí bowl outlets.

Each new format reflects another change in consumer behaviour toward what is healthy, how frozen treats should look and just how much people are willing to pay.

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Ice cream parlours: creating comfort that travels

In Australia, the post-war decades saw ice cream shift from a novelty to a weekend ritual - local brands, beachfront kiosks and Saturday sport canteens.

The appeal of an ice cream remains durable, partly because it is ritual as much as flavour: a celebration after a game, a holiday cone at the beach, the familiar dilemma of choosing between one scoop or two.

According to some estimates, global ice cream sales sit around US$125 billion[1] (about A$179 billion - or about A$22 per person per year globally), highlighting how small, repeat indulgences add up at a global level.

Gelato - migration, craft and premiumisation

Modern gelato culture had its roots in Italy, before spreading across Europe, the Americas and Australia through migration and global travel.

Centres of Italian cuisine, such as Lygon Street in Melbourne, helped normalise gelato as an everyday premium - intense flavours, a lighter style and a hint of “exotic” European-ness in contrast to post-war Anglo Australia.

Chains such as Gelatissimo scaled regionally from Australia, while European names like Grom expanded internationally by exporting Italian heritage and ingredient-led branding.

By adding some theatre - gleaming metal tubs piled high, colourful open displays and scooping flair - and linking these to authenticity, gelaterias turned a mature category into a whole new experience.

Frozen yoghurt - the health halo meets self-serve fun

Frozen yoghurt first appeared in the United States during the 1980s, partly as a low-fat alternative to ice cream.

It initially faded, then returned in the 2000s with self-serve stores, where customers could combine the retail and taste experience of customising their own bowls with everything from chocolate chips, mango chunks and crushed Oreos, and paying by weight.

This kind of format appealed particularly to students and young professionals - partly a treat, partly a chance for self-expression.

Over time, the initial novelty of these stores evolved into a stable niche in the market - and one which worked year-round, rather than just in summer peaks.

Some early chains overexpanded or struggled as the early health perceptions around frozen yoghurt changed, while others - such as Yo-Chi in Australia - endured by tightening menus, improving ingredients and operating smaller, simpler stores.

Açaí bowls: function plus flair

If gelato reworked indulgence and frozen yoghurt flirted with health, açaí bowls shifted frozen treats away from dessert and toward breakfast and post-gym eating.

Açaí is a small, dark-purple berry native to northern Brazil, traditionally consumed as a thick, blended pulp rather than eaten fresh.

Açaí is grown almost entirely in the Amazon basin, where the berries are processed soon after harvest into frozen pulp for export. Outside the region, that pulp is blended with banana or other fruit and eaten from a bowl.

Long associated in Brazil with surfers and athletes as an energy-dense food, açaí spread globally from the late 2000s through surf, fitness and wellness culture, first catching on in coastal, fitness-oriented cities such as Los Angeles, Sydney and Singapore.

Served frozen and topped with fruit, granola or nut butters, açaí bowls became a cold meal eaten with a spoon, most often sold through small standalone shops near gyms, beaches and inner-city strips - almost marketed as a workout in a bowl.

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Where trends begin - and where they work

The United States has long been a market where strong demand for sweet desserts has supported chain-based frozen food formats, allowing concepts to expand across large, diverse cities before moving offshore.

In Europe, particularly Italy and France, frozen treats have tended to be shaped by gelato and sorbet traditions, with an emphasis on flavour, technique and ingredient quality.

In East Asia, especially Japan and South Korea, frozen treats often place a strong emphasis on presentation and novelty, with formats such as mochi ice cream, taiyaki cones and parfaits, making appearance as important as taste.

Australia has often adopted new frozen formats early, with retailers and café operators mixing American-style formats, European flavours and Asian presentation, helped by café culture, climate and dense inner-city retail strips.

Where a frozen treat succeeds, however, can depend less on where it originated than on where it is placed. In central business districts and shopping centres, consumers are often looking for something quick and easy to carry, while university precincts, with their diverse international student populations, tend to suit lower-cost options.

Fitness precincts see gym-goers head straight for seemingly healthy offers such as açaí bowls and smoothies, while tourist strips and beach towns continue to see tourists relive their childhood holidays by opting for ice cream and gelato.

Across all of these locations, price remains a vital factor. Frozen outlets tend to perform best when they deliver a small luxury - a five-dollar soft-serve cone with a flake, or an eight-dollar açaí bowl topped with fruit and granola, which feels like a small reward rather than an expensive extravagance.

What makes a concept last

The first is balance. The most resilient outlets manage to juggle both indulgence and self-justification - still a treat, but one consumers can justify to themselves as something healthy, whether through portion size, added protein or fruit toppings. Calling ice cream “healthy” may be a stretch, but protein-spiked scoops or açaí bowls finished with chocolate granola show just how far customers are willing to lean into that thinking if it helps them enjoy the moment.

The second is operational simplicity. Outlets that keep menus short, preparation quick and waste low are easier to staff and easier to repeat. Gelato and soft-serve formats, where flavours are made in batches and displayed in full view, often beat more complex kitchens by serving faster, making fewer mistakes and making the production process more entertaining.

The third is the story behind the scoop. Provenance, values and local sourcing continue to carry weight, particularly in categories where visual cues matter as much as nutrition. Traits such as Italian roots, ethical positioning or distinct local ingredients can be enough to turn a one-off visit into repeat visits.

Ingredients for (frozen) success

More fruit, more protein and more plant-based options are in demand, but only if they scoop cleanly, hold their shape and keep their flavour when slightly thawed, and scooped again and again during busy service.

Açaí purées, frozen berries, nut butters and plant-based milks have to stay consistent in taste, texture and cost across every store, not just look good on a menu board.

While functional add-ins such as protein powders or fibre blends are increasingly popular, they need to survive freezing without turning chalky or oddly flavoured.

Even packaging needs to be adaptable to change - smaller portions, recyclable cups and lids that don’t pop off just at the wrong time.

For suppliers, frozen outlets often act as early signals of opportunity: when a flavour or ingredient - such as açaí, mango or added protein - takes off at the counter, demand can build quickly further up the supply chain.

The wider opportunities

As wellness-led eating spreads across Asia’s expanding middle class, the opportunities are growing, not just in exporting frozen outlet brands but also in supplying what goes into them. Across parts of Asia - including cities such as Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo, and sections of coastal China - local smoothie, bowl and health-driven formats are emerging, creating demand for reliable inputs.

Australian producers of fruit, dairy, nuts and specialised ingredients are well placed in this context. Clean-label frozen fruit purées, milk proteins and nut-based ingredients are a good fit for markets that want local branding backed by trusted imported inputs.

Social media has shifted from an optional marketing tool to a central part of the experience. Frozen yoghurt and açaí outlets rely on Instagram reels, daily flavour boards, reposted customer shots and app-only deals to trigger impulse visits. Broader menus that include coffee, smoothies and light food then help keep these outlets part of daily routines - from the post-gym refill to the after-school mango yoghurt.

For investors, novelty frozen treats may bring people through the door, but discipline delivers returns. Early sites can perform well when the format suits the location, yet results remain sensitive to labour costs and repeat foot traffic. The most scalable models tend to be the simplest ones - shared kitchens, repeatable layouts and longer trading hours.

A frozen future?

If ice cream became gelato, gelato became frozen yoghurt and frozen yoghurt somehow turned into açaí bowls, one lesson stands out - almost none of it was predicted. Few people expected yoghurt to escape the home fridge and become a global self-serve phenomenon, or a deep-purple Amazonian berry to anchor breakfast menus in Sydney and Singapore. The next shift could be just as unexpected.

One possibility is functional frozen treats that genuinely deliver on their health claims - something like electrolyte sorbets for summer sport, protein-rich custard gelato for ageing consumers, or tart-cherry night bowls pitched as dessert-that-helps-you-sleep. Another might be formats with a whole new texture, where the appeal comes from the stretch, snap or chew - think the stretchy, elastic ice creams popular in the Middle East, or gelato finished with a thin chocolate shell that cracks satisfyingly when you dig in. Or perhaps a third might be a back-story you can taste, with native fruits, rescued or ‘wonky’ produce, or olive-oil gelato making sustainability feel indulgent as well as ethical.

Whatever comes next, frozen treats are no longer just about beating the heat. They’ve become part of everyday routines - a post-gym stop, a school-run bribe, a late-afternoon scroll-and-snack - and keeping consumers happy all year round.

Michael Whitehead is Executive Director for Agribusiness Industry Insights at ANZ

[1] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/ice cream-market