Snog, a sweet sour pure frozen yoghurt with creative toppings is not just a tasty snack but a trendy socialising style, particularly for Asian customers, which make up 50% of its customer population.

Within a cosy small room enclosed by pink walls, young people gather around modern-looking white tables enjoying a snog and having a comfortable chat to friends. For Asians in particular, this means stop comparing London’s dark and rainy weather with home and finding an alternative to the pub culture that they are not particularly keen to embrace.

So what are snogs? Put in paper cups and eaten with a spoon, snogs are non-fat organic frozen yoghurt blended into the shape of ice-creams. They come in natural, chocolate and green tea flavours with toppings ranging from chopped up fruits to granola to mini-sized cookies. But different from the sweet feeling you get after three scoops of ice-cream, the mild taste of snogs with natural sweetening extracted from the plant agave nectar is good at making you feel refreshed even after you go through a large bowl.

The first Snog store sat up in Britain was two years ago in South Kensington, but the idea of frozen yoghurt for Asians go further back. About four years ago, when health-consciousness significantly increased in Singapore, the traditionally ice-cream-reliant nation experienced reduced sales in ice-creams. Consequently, frozen yoghurt became popular healthy alternative.

Similar types of after-meal desert shops have also spread across China in recent years, especially in cosmopolitan cities like Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. These shops have a selection of hot and cold dishes ranging from ice coconut sago soup to stemmed egg pudding. Same as snog, mild flavouring and cosy interior design are essential for the experience.

It is precisely this unique after-dinner hobby back at home that made Snog so attractive to London’s international students. A Singaporean student who visits Snog for the first time confessed, “This experience is slightly odd because I’ve never eaten yoghurt in such cold weather before. But it doesn’t feel like a first time visit, because the concept of snog back at home is an integral part of my life.”

Since snog’s coming to London two years ago, it has already opened four shops in South Kensington, Soho, Westfield and Covent Garden. Its success will inevitably help to make London’s social life much more welcoming to Asians in the years to come.