Inside My Table #86 | Excerpt
The Fro-Yo Wars—Battleground Houston
By Rose Cahalan
There’s a new fad on the frozen confection scene — frozen yogurt. Only this isn’t the sweetened, non-fat soft-serve dessert à la TCBY. This is real yogurt, tangy and healthful, served in trendy shops that are as much about socializing as they are eating.
The current trend began in 2002 with the Seoul import, Red Mango. Three years later, the craze erupted on American shores with Los Angeles’s Pinkberry, a wildly successful fro-yo product fondly dubbed “Crackberry” by its most devout followers. Pinkberry serves creamy, tart yogurt, topped with everything from fresh fruit to breakfast cereals. There are now more than 50 Pinkberry locations in California and New York, and the chain seems poised to spread inward from the coasts, as scads of imitators already have.
In Houston, there are three main Pinkberry knock-offs vying for consumers’ affections: Swirll, Berripop and Flavors of Yogurt. All three feature tart yogurt and stores designed to encourage customers to linger, with features like free WiFi, flat-screen TVs and flashy, modern decor. Think: coffeehouse experience for yogurt lovers.
All three tout the health benefits of the live probiotic cultures in their yogurt, making claims that range from the reasonable — “lower calorie than most other frozen treats,” says Swirll’s website — to the dubious (“may help in the treatment of ulcers and colon cancer,” reads a poster at Flavors of Yogurt). Pinkberry has already settled lawsuits over false advertising about its yogurt’s nutrition facts, not that the publicity seems to have hurt business: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recently invested $27.5 million in the Pinkberry concept, calling it a “cultural phenomenon.”
Controversy aside, how does the stuff actually taste, and how do the Houston stores compare?
Swirll, which was first on the scene when it opened last summer, has three neighborhood locations in Rice Village, the Galleria and River Oaks. Their core flavors are original, green tea and pomegranate. If you’re expecting a sweet taste like ice cream, prepare to be shocked: This yogurt has a tangy bite, and their original flavor is by far the tartest of the three brands I tasted. The green tea has an unbelievably powerful flavor, as if you are actually consuming a strong cup of tea in frozen form. I loved it, but I saw other customers grimace and shake their heads, so opinion is apparently divided.
Swirll’s Rice Village store offers three sizes of yogurt cups served to you by an employee, while the other two locations are self-serve: You fill your own cup and pay 43 cents per ounce. At the Village location, a 14-oz. medium cup of the original flavor costs $3.35. If you fill the whole cup, the self-serve will end up being almost twice as expensive, at $6.02 for 14 oz., but the advantage — or disadvantage, depending on your self-control — is that you choose your own portion size. And it’s fun to get creative, mixing new flavor and topping blends.
Ambiance and décor are similar at all three locations, with funky, modern furniture, plus free WiFi and shiny tiled walls in lime green or bright purple. At the Galleria location, an entire high school girls’ soccer team was lounging in the giant orange womb chairs, enjoying a frosty after-practice snack.
Berripop’s flavor selection is similar to Swirll’s, but the taste and texture of the yogurt is slightly different. The consistency is more icy than creamy — think sorbet — and the original flavor is a bit sweeter than Swirll’s, though still tangy. Topping selection and overall price are nearly identical to Swirll. Berripop is not self-serve, so expect to wait in line and pay for a full cup. They seem to be catering to a younger crowd — you’ll see fewer minivan-driving moms in yoga clothes and more young couples stopping in for their fix on the way home from work. The store was bustling on a recent Thursday night, with a noisier, busier ambiance than either Swirll or Flavors of Yogurt, and the décor is more adventurous, with huge hanging paper lamps and louder music.
Flavors of Yogurt on Westheimer is your best bet if you prefer a sweeter, more ice cream-like taste and texture, though it’s still tarter than TCBY. Ten self-serve flavors (45 cents/oz.) include several more traditional options like chocolate and peach. Their topping selection is by far the biggest, with decadent choices like brownie and cookie dough pieces, but the fruit toppings lay limply in syrupy trays. Décor is pleasant but not as colorful or youthful as Swirll and Berripop.
Overall, Swirll is the place to go for a tart yogurt flavor, and the convenience of their three locations is tough to beat. Though at the rate this craze is growing, there are sure to be more competitors soon.
Swirll
2531 University at Kelvin, 713-526-7947
5000 Westheimer at Post Oak Blvd., 713-552-0863
1944-A West Gray at Bailey, 713-523-4888
http://www.swirlls.com/
Berripop
3825 Richmond near Cummins, 713-960-1940
http://www.berripop.com/
Flavors of Yogurt
5757 Westheimer at Bering, 713-789-1111
http://www.flavorsofyogurt.com/
