FroYo: Part I

I remember the frozen yogurt frenzy of the late 1980's. In my mind, it was even more intense in Los Angeles, where I grew up. My family ate it all the time. As embarrassing as this might be (mostly to my parents) we would even have it for dinner. Our carrier of choice was Penguins, in the mini mall near our house. The attraction there was that you could pick a base flavor and then pick mix-ins, like peanut butter cups, oreo pieces, toffee. It was great!

So I was understandably intrigued by the frozen yogurt sensation that has been sweeping LA recently. A sensation by the name of Pinkberry. I'm not going to go into details about it because it has been covered extensively in other food blogs (like Eater LA) and on Good Food on KCRW. But it has grown to epic proportions. I heard that Pinkberry opened up outposts in Manhattan in the last few months. In LA, a number of similar places have popped up and here in NYC, the same has happened. Yolato, which serves a combination of yogurt/gelato (get it?), has also opened, serving, from what I hear, a similar product.

Against my better judgment, I have decided to throw my own opinion out there and today I stopped by Pinkberry and tried their green tea frozen yogurt. Maybe it was too cold to appreciate anything frozen, but I really can't see what all the fuss is about. First of all, it doesn't taste like frozen yogurt much at all. It has a watery, hollow flavor, with only a faint taste of green tea. To tell you the truth, I would have been more satisfied with Tasti-Delite. I still want to try Yolato, but after this my expectations are very low.

Those crazy Angelenos, what are they thinking...