FRO-YOLYMPICS DAY 2: Pinkberry
Our next stop on the frozen yogurt tour was Pinkberry. This is the place that I first encountered plain frozen yogurt; it’s the originator of the craze in the US (although Red Mango started the trend in Korea back in 2002). Pinkberry has had its fair share of controversy; last year, people claimed Pinkberry can’t actually be called “frozen yogurt” because their yogurt didn’t have enough live cultures. Also, who can forget all those mice running amok in the UES Pinkberry (all caught on film by a newscrew?) Even so, Chris and I spent all last summer going to Pinkberry every night because we love it so much. I never bothered trying other places because I thought Pinkberry was so great; I’ve had a very strong allegiance to Pinkberry (but we’ll see if that changes by the end of the tour!).
Pinkberry’s storefront (with Ariel and Chris!):
1. Size of the hole:
We noticed that the hole was not as large as usual; HOWEVER, someone that works at the K-town Pinkberry told me that there shouldn’t even BE a hole! AT ALL! Obviously Pinkberry needs to standardize their frozen yogurt practices. Tsk, tsk.
2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Pinkberry scored a 2 (which was expected; Pinkberry is known for being more tart and tangy than creamy).
3. Topping Variety:
Pinkberry has standard toppings (fruit and cereal) and for the winter, they bring out pomegranate seeds. One thing I don’t like about Pinkberry is that they hide their mochi – why don’t you just put it on your menu or in front with everything else?! They also have lychees every once in a while.
4. Fruit Quality: On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Pinkberry scored a very sad 2 out of 5! We were kind of upset that there was still skin on the mangoes (that is sloppy!!) and it was definitely CRUNCHY! That means it’s not ripe!
5. Calories per ounce: after a bunch of calculations, I figured out that Pinkberry is about 20 calories/ounce. Pinkberry’s nutritional information is very misleading and a little difficult to figure out in your head.
6. Price per ounce: Pinkberry cost about 66 cents/ounce.
7. Atmosphere/quality of service: Pinkberry had some corny reggae Christmas music (which none of us were fans of) and the manager yelled at me for taking pictures, even though EVERYONE takes pictures in there! Actually, the topping variety picture was taken after a frozen yogurt specialist asked me to stop taking pictures (I asked to speak to his manager and when he went to the backroom to find the head honcho, I snapped the picture). The manager came out and told us that we could take pictures OUTSIDE the store, but not inside. Thanks for giving us permission to take pictures on PUBLIC PROPERTY!
8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Pinkberry a 3; a perfect combination of iciness and smoothness!
9. Number of flavors: there are 3 flavors at Pinkberry – original, green tea, and coffee (which was introduced in the middle of January!
10. Resilience to heat:
There was some meltage, but overall, Pinkberry did well.
11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:
We were slightly disappointed with the presentation because there simply wasn’t enough fruit on our yogurt (especially after a trip to Oko, where they seriously put an entire mango on our frozen yogurt!). Also, they only gave us 3 blackberries, which is extremely stingy.
Pinkberry is known for having an icier consistency, but we all noticed that it was smoother than usual; Red Mango opened up a couple weeks ago across the street and maybe Pinkberry is starting to emulate the competition!! We weren’t impressed with Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt OR their service. We gave Pinkberry a final score of 3.5/5.0. Tomorrow, we will explore Red Mango and see if the grass is greener on the other side (of the street). Stay tuned!
Here are all of the posts in order (if you wanted to jump around):
Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas
Reader Comments
First Pinkberry made plain & green tea yogurt
The yogurt was without form and holey, and iciness was upon the face of the yogurt;
and the Spirit of Pinkberry was moving over the face of the toppings.
And Pinkberry said, “Let there be coffee”; and there was coffee.
And Pinkberry saw that the coffee was good.
Dave, what form of poetry is that? Iambic crap-tameter? Haha, just kidding. I kill myself sometimes.
This fro-yo tour is crazy. You guys must be the most hard-core froyo fans in the world. You can probably turn this into a spread for some New York magazine.
And the charts! Oh, the Excel-erific charts. Leave it to a bunch of consultants to quantify the good-ness of frozen yogurt.
OMG people – it’s a parody of the Bible! Has our NARSICISSTIC IPOD culture really sunk so low that you can’t even mock the GOOD BOOK anymore?
GOD SPIT YOU