Thursday, December 28, 2006

What's Up with Pinkberry?

There's a new frogurt shop in town called Pinkberry. Imported from LA, where it is so hot and addictive they are calling it "crackberry" and waiting 45 minutes on lines around the corner guarded by security. The Pinkberry craze has finally hit New York...slowly. An outpost has opened on the Upper East Side on 2nd Ave:
The internets is raving about the decor of Phillippe Starck chairs and Le Klint lanterns and the fact that they won't let you take pictures inside. Well Pinkberry management is no match for the mighty Velvet Sea camera- behold the interior:
The floor was made of tiny pebbles and was pretty cool. Upon entering Pinkberry, we could ascertain that it was some sort of dessert shop but even the menu behind the counter didn't fully explain that they sell fat free frozen yogurt. Surprisingly Pinkberry only offers 2 flavors- plain and green tea. They have a plethora of fresh fruit toppings as well as some more decadent choices- neatly arranged:
I sampled both flavors and found them both to be blah (speaking technically of course). The plain tasted no different than unsweetened regular yogurt with a hint of sourness and it's consistency was even similar. You could get the same effect by putting a cup of Dannon in the freezer for 30 minutes. The green tea was better but it was extremely tea-like with virtually no sweetness to it; it was like eating tea. It even tasty "gritty". Not what I'm looking for in a dessert. I suppose the toppings would add sweetness but really it's not much different than really cold yogurt with fruit (and 10x more expensive).
They were generous with the toppings. I'm not predicting big success for this store- with the multitude of other options within a 3 block radius and the lack of flavor and sweetness, Tasti-D you have nothing to worry about. Pinkberry plans to add 15 more stores in the area soon. Blahberry!