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Frozen Yogurt Chains Show No Signs of Melting

YumSugar — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:00:44 -0700

With Summer heating up, Nation's Restaurant News reports that many of frozen yogurt's top chains are gearing up for some rather chilly competition. This month, Pinkberry announced it has received an additional $9 million from investors, and plans to open 35 stores in the Middle East as well as expand domestically. Meanwhile, top competitor Red Mango has grand plans of its own - to launch 550 locations over the next five years, and at least 40 new domestic stores this year in states such as Texas.

Last week, New York-based frozen dessert chain Tasti-D-Lite signed a deal to open 35 new stores in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut over the next ten years. That's in addition to more than a dozen outposts in Nashville, TN, plus 40 more in southern Texas. Yet another competitor, Yogurt-land, plans to more than double in size before the end of the year.

While I did predict that custom blended fro-yo would be the next big trend, I think the industry may have gone a bit overboard. At a time when Starbucks has been forced to lower prices on coffee, do yogurt chains truly believe they can exponentially grow their empires on $5 cups of yogurt? Are you in agreement, or are you simply excited by the prospect of having more frozen yogurt options?

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Yummy Links: From Margaritas to Tom Colicchio

partysugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:00:46 -0700

A simple tip for keeping your blended margarita colder longer. - Chow
Speaking of margaritas, here are ten unique flavors to experiment with. - Hostess with the Mostess
Pinkberry, the frozen yogurt chain, announces plans to expand in the Bay Area and the Middle East. - Eater SF
Catch up with New York City's ex-Top Chef contestants. - The New York Times
Only the trailer has been released, but the movie Julie and Julia is already getting criticized. - Eat me daily
What Obama's first 100 days as president mean to serious eaters. - Serious Eats
Find out what's inside actress Jennifer Garner's kitchen. - Bon Appétit
Tom Colicchio talks guitars, tuna, and tequila. - The NYT Magazine

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Custom Blends: Frozen Yogurt's Newest Trend?

YumSugar — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:00:04 -0700

If the new pomegranate flavors from Pinkberry and Red Mango don't do it for you, consider this: what if you had an endless number of flavors to choose from?

High-tech blending processes may be the next big wave in the frozen-yogurt trend. That's what I discovered when I visited the San Francisco outpost of Yogen Früz, a fro-yo chain with a high-tech yogurt concept. First, I chose from single-serving packages of a base yogurt in various flavors (low-fat vanilla, nonfat vanilla, or low-fat chocolate) with probiotic cultures.

Then I chose two toppings out of a large selection that included frozen fruits (strawberries, cherries, mangoes, lychees, blueberries, etc.) and dry toppings (Cap'n Crunch, almonds, coconut flakes, granola, and the like). Together they went into a proprietary machine. Twenty seconds later, I was enjoying my lychee mango vanilla creation, which was whipped, creamy, and studded with icy chunks of mango and lychee.

Yogen Früz may have pioneered the idea, but - with specially designed yogurt-blending machines available on the web, other boutique yogurt bars have caught on. Have you tried this type of yogurt? Now that the fancy frozen yogurt trend is waning, do you think custom blended fro-yo could be the next big thing?

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For Red Mango and Pinkberry, It's Pomegranate War

YumSugar — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:15:01 -0800

Last Thursday, frozen yogurt chain Red Mango announced that it would be partnering with pomegranate juice pioneer, POM Wonderful, to debut its first new flavor, Pomegranate by POM Wonderful.

But someone else had the same idea: Red Mango's biggest rival, cult favorite Pinkberry. New York magazine's food blog first reported that the rival chain's pomegranate flavor is slated to hit stores Nov. 21, one week after Red Mango's, and a Pinkberry rep confirmed with us the release of the new flavor.

This pomegranate battle isn't the first time that Pinkberry and Red Mango have gone head to head, and it certainly won't be the last. While the two chains may not be thrilled with the news, I'll be excited to conduct a taste-off. Will you do the same?

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Pinkberry and Red Mango Go Head to Head in Ad Wars

YumSugar — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:15:13 -0700

Green tea frozen yogurt may be cool, but the war between frozen yogurt chains Red Mango and Pinkberry is heating up. Only weeks after Pinkberry hired branding firm Bulldog Drummond, archrival Red Mango has cut a seven-figure deal with the Richards Group ad agency.In the past two years, a new kind of frozen yogurt has exploded in major American cities by way of Asia. The tart, icy treat with fruit, mochi, and cereal-flake toppings quickly gained a cult following. As a result, copycat chains have sprung up across regions like Southern California and Florida, bearing similar brand names like Blue Mango, Diet Berry, and Peachberry.

Red Mango wants to respond by giving its gluten-free, certified kosher, high active-culture count yogurt an extra edge. "There are so many copycats out there. We wanted to educate customers on why Red Mango is different," the company's USA president, Dan Kim, said. He wants Red Mango to be the Starbucks of the frozen yogurt world.

Have you tried the "new" style of tart frozen yogurt? What do you think of it? Do you have a preference in brands? With aggressive branding and advertisements, which company do you think will come out ahead?

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Meet SoGreen, San Francisco's Frozen Yogurt Darling

partysugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:15:12 -0700

New York has Tasti D-lite, Los Angeles has Pinkberry, and finally San Francisco has jumped on the frozen-yogurt bandwagon with the opening of SoGreen. Like it's counterparts, SoGreen uses real yogurt with active cultures that can help with digestion and boosting the immune system. The hot spot opened literally downstairs from our office, so a bunch of us recently took a froyo field trip. To check out our trip and interview with SoGreen's co-founder, watch the video below!

Freeze! It's Another Frozen Yogurt Quiz!

YumSugar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:30:13 -0700

I'll eat just about any sweet, frozen treat, from gelato to Dr. Pepper popsicles. But frozen yogurt has the added bonus of being low-fat and trendy!

Apparently, frozen yogurt is so popular that it deserves two national days of honor: Both Feb. 8 and today are National Frozen Yogurt Day! Since you enjoyed my last froyo quiz so much, I thought I'd throw another one your way.

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Yummy Links: From Alton Brown to Pinkberry

YumSugar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:23:33 -0700

Alton Brown talks about his next big career move. - Chow
Remember the award winning peanut butter cookies? Here they are recreated from scratch. - Baking Bites
Or, if you're wondering what it tastes like when you make them exactly like suggested, see what other folks have to say. - Cookie Madness
Check out this healthy tip for packing salads for a week. - FitSugar
Learn how to effectively warm bread in the microwave. - The Kitchn
Discover these fabulous tea finds. - Simply Stated
One dish, two meals. Make double dinners with half the effort. - iVillage
Looking for more Passover dessert ideas? - The Food Section
Get the 411 on building and planting your own planter box. - CasaSugar
It only took three years, but Pinkberry is officially "frozen yogurt." - Eater LA

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Yummy Link: Goodbye pinkberry, Hello Red Mango

YumSugar — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:28:38 -0700

Love pinkberry yogurt? How about Red Mango yogurt. They started the yogurt revival and are opening their first store in the US this summer. - Will Work For Food

Kirsten Dunst Loves pinkberry, But Will You?

YumSugar — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:00:00 -0800

In case you haven't heard, "real" frozen yogurt is all the rage now. In fact it's so hot that there's not one, but two franchises that cater to the new trend. FitSugar wrote about the differences between the two celebrity hotspots, and it seems like Kirsten Dunst prefers pinkberry. I found this photo of her keeping cool with pinkberry this past October.

So, what's the big deal with pinkberry and why does everyone love it? Unfortunately I don't live in LA or New York (where their franchises can be found), so I have yet to taste it. However, since I knew you guys would be interested, I sent my YumSugar undercover reporter (aka my brother) out to do some investigating.

To read what he had to say and see more pictures of pinkberry, read more

First of all, pinkberry only comes in two flavors: original and green tea. My brother, who has a pretty good palate, says that the green tea was terrible and sour and the original is "less terrible and less sour, but still terrible and sour." It was after his first taste test that he realized it was made with live yogurt (like the kind you have for breakfast) and so he decided to try and not compare it to other frozen yogurts. He said it was decent, however he wasn't sure that the sour flavor made up for the health benefits.

"I ordered the medium with 3 toppings: Coconut, Chocolate Chips, and Granola.

I don't know how anyone would ever be able to muscle down pinkberry without any toppings but I guess it is possible.

Overall the combination I picked was semi-ok. The sweetness battled the sour yogurt, but still the sour prevailed. I cannot begin to imagine what the green tea would have been like.

With fruit it would have been excellent. It would probably be like a parfait that way."

Hrrm.. doesn't sound so promising. And yet I'm still intrigued. Even if it is another overrated trend (complete with celebrity endorsements), I'd still like to try it for myself. I think that the sour factor might be a love it or hate it sort of thing. Looks like I'll just have to muster up a visit to LA to find out for myself.

Kirsten Source: X17

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