Pinkberry Woes

The Buzz around Pinkberry has reached a furious pitch recently. It's wildly popular, fun, and delicious. A workmate of mine was shocked to hear that I had never had it, and has been trying to get me to go with her for months. Well, one just opened across the street from our offices, and as if on cue, you can see droves of us making our mecca at 3pm daily.

I finally did have my first Pinkberry the other day, and it was awesome. A little history lesson: Pinkberry is actually a rip off of another Korean Chain Red Mango, I only know this because said workmate wrote a bit about it in her blog as well. Pinkberry's Frozen Yogurt is tart & tangy, yet sweet. The toppings are freshly cut fruit and the normal toppings like granola, chocolate chips, etc. Of course it's the styling of the whole thing that makes it sooo irresistible. It's Hello Kitty cute to the max. Everything is stylized, right down to the ordering protocol including your name, toppings, SS#, first born. Not only is it seriously yummy, it has next to no calories, and is pretty much guilt-free, or so we thought.

For those of you who might not know, I am Lactose Intolerant. No biggie really, I avoid dairy if I can, and when I absolutely need to eat my Shropshire Blue (a fabulous English Blue Cheese), I take a Lactaid pill that let's me digest it easily. That being said Yogurt doesn't affect me (neither does Goat Cheese or Cottage Cheese) since it is so high in bacterial cultures (the good kind, the kind that make yogurt, yogurt). So Frozen Yogurt, REAL Frozen Yogurt is my friend. That being said, that night, my stomach was angry with me. For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. I thought it might have been something I had for dinner. I racked my brain for any dairy that I might have had, and nothing came to mind.

The following day, the truth came out. Pinkberry is in fact NOT Yogurt at all, not even close. While legit Frozen Yogurt should have something along the lines of hundreds of thousands of yogurt cultures, Pinkberry barely has fifty thousand. So Sad. Let me repeat that -- SO SAD. They are being sued, and can no longer call thier product Frozen Yogurt, sigh.

Well, Tasty-D-Lite it is, yet again and again and again. Sigh. Pinkberry I hardly knew ye...