Provided
Charlie Gentry’s TruJoy Yogurt now fills freezer aisles in more than 500 DFW stores, including Central Market.
As a onetime oil-and-gas guy, Charlie Gentry spent his days crunching numbers and his nights dreaming about dessert. And three and a half years ago, he indeed decided to trade pipelines for pints.
The 32-year-old Fort Worth native is the founder of TruJoy Yogurt, a high-protein, clean-ingredient frozen treat that’s turning heads from Fort Worth to San Francisco.
TruJoy Yogurt is now stocked in stores across DFW.
“I’ve always loved food, been a bit of a health nut my whole life,” says Gentry, who now lives in Austin. “I saw an opportunity in the freezer aisle to offer a cleaner alternative for folks.”
He began experimenting in his mother’s kitchen using his grandmother’s Cuisinart ice cream maker. Eventually, he realized he needed a commercial setup, so he invested in a $15,000 ice cream freezer, which he ran off a generator with a 20-amp extension cord snaking through the house.
In May 2023, he turned his life savings into 20,000 pints of frozen yogurt with almost no customers. But luck and persistence followed quickly.
Central Market picked up TruJoy, and now this frozen treat sits in more than 500 stores across the DFW area. Gentry honed the formula over 125 recipes, balancing creamy texture, natural flavors, and probiotics without relying on artificial sugars or additives.
Flavors range from classic vanilla — the bestseller — to Lemon Velvet, a nod to a family recipe, and peanut butter chocolate chip, which tests even his own self-control.
The name “TruJoy” itself is both clever and personal. It’s ‘yogurt’ spelled backward with a J.
“I had another name in mind,” says Gentry, an All Saints’ Episcopal School graduate, “but my mom said it was too nerdy and suggested TruJoy Yogurt.”
Mom knows best.
Gentry’s chemistry background as a geology undergraduate at Washington & Lee University comes into play in every pint.
“Ice cream is chemistry,” he says, referring not only to the molecular reactions in frozen desserts but also to his training. Crafting a frozen yogurt with lower fat, lower sugar, and live probiotics takes precise experimentation. His chemistry knowledge helped him balance ingredients, control textures, and preserve probiotics while delivering indulgent flavor.
“Health trends are ever evolving, and when I launched, probiotics were all the thing — now it’s protein,” he says. “I’m lucky my product naturally fits both.”
For Gentry, the journey isn’t just about selling ice cream. It’s about persistence, creativity, and navigating the quirks of retail distribution. For now, Gentry is chasing shelf space, expanding the brand, and making sure his frozen creations hit the sweet spot between health and indulgence.
“Timing is everything,” he says. “You knock on one door, and it’s an instant yes. Another one takes 18 months of persistence.”