The fresh fruit frozen yogurt machine at Paris Natural Foods gets quite the workout everyday.
Caleb Reid, who operates the machine, says he serves 75 to 100 swirled frozen yogurts per day at the South End Paris Street storefront.
Paris Natural Foods has been using the same single serve style machine since 1983 and has been delivering frozen yogurt for more than 40 years now.
While it is now under the ownership of Patrick Vallant for the last 10 years, Vallant says he puts his faith in Caleb Reid as the “king of the machine.”
Reid, who reloads the freezers with flash frozen fruit multiple times per day to keep up with the demand, says even with the changing of the seasons, the orders for frozen yogurt never wanes.
“I cut, prepare and portion the flash frozen fruit in a dedicated space in the back room,” Reid said. “We have local providers that send us the fruit.”
The frozen yogurt at Paris Natural Foods is only made one portion size at a time due to the size of the machine.
There are thirteen different fruit options for customers to contemplate including a variety of berries and melons.
Reid says many people like to experiment by blending fruits, but the machine size limits them to two to four fruit combinations.
“Top blends are usually strawberry banana, blueberry peach and pineapple mango,” says Reid.
He adds that he does make a mean watermelon papaya or watermelon mango combination, or so he is told by customers who request it.
Reid maintains the feedback is always positive when it comes to the taste and the portion size. He says no one ever leaves unhappy with their cup, cone or container in hand.
Many of the customers are families who stop in after a few hours at the nearby Nepahwin Beach or the James Jerome soccer fields.
He says entire high school classes often come from the nearby Lockerby Composite high school too.
“Surprisingly there are many regulars who are nursing staff at Health Sciences North too,” he said. “They call in their orders in advance at around noon and pick up their prepared order after their shift is over as a treat.”
Reid admits he is also a fan of the frozen yogurt although he tries to limit himself to only about one per week, unlike when he first started at Paris Natural Foods.
Paris Natural Foods have specific hours of operation for the frozen yogurt customers. They are Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturdays 9 to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The store is located at 1500 Paris St. near Nepahwin Lake.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.