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Pinkberry Pinkberry, the most hated and revered fro-yo chain. Are you pinkberry or are you stinkberry? Are you good for me or bad? There's been so much Pinkberry news lately, it's tough to keep track of it all.
Here's the timeline of events:
- Pinkberry becomes wildly popular - so popular, many begin to wonder about its oddly addictive qualities and the big question finally gets asked: just what the hell is this I'm eating?
- Pinkberry is slapped with a lawsuit, as a customer claims their fro-yo concoction is more fro, less yo. The suit alleges that Pinkberry is not frozen yogurt at all - that is is not healthy, that it is not all-natural and that it is not non-fat.
- Pinkberry denies these claims, but agrees to pay $750,000 to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, a food collection agency and to Paras Los Niños, a nonprofit family service organization, plus $5,000 and legal fees to the woman who filed suit.
- As part of the lawsuit Pinkberry reveals their ingredients and the big scary question is finally answered. Just what the hell are you eating? Propylene glycol esters, guar gum, Yellow 5 Lake, monodiglycerides, sodium citrate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, magnesium oxide, lactoglyceride and a bunch of other unsavory chemicals which are now listed in their full glory at Pinkberry's website.
- Just when we're beginning to regret all those late night Pinkberry visits and the bold pronouncement of our dirty little secret, the National Yogurt Association adds a twist to the story by declaring that Pinkberry is yogurt after all. Despite that nasty list of chemicals recently revealed, the frozen concoction contains the fro-yo holy grail: live & active cultures. A technicality, maybe, but it turns out Pinkberry is both fro and yo.
Good thing we've recently kicked our Pinkberry addiction and found a new one: Cefiore tempered with a dash of Red Mango. We've not heard back from Cefiore on their list of ingredients (their website reveals little), but Red Mango has also received the National Yogurt Association's stamp of yogurt approval.
Yet all this talk of chemicals and manufactured food products - on Earth Day no less - has us thinking about the larger impact of such fake foods on our environment, on our bodies. Whatever happened to actual yogurt? We're thinking that's a much better bet. You?
Previously:
Is Pinkberry Fakeberry?
Pinkberry + Starbucks+ $27.5 Million = Kiss of Death
Pinkberry: What's the Big Deal?
My Dirty Little Secret: I Love Pinkberry
Photo by e.t. via Flickr
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Stop. Pinkberry is a food chain. People eat there. LAist makes a big deal about it. Stop obsessing and do some real reporting. Thank you.
This reminds me of the folks trying to get irradiated food certified as organic.
Pinkberry is a big deal, whether you like it or not.
If it wasn't, then no one would be fighting it going into Sherman Oaks.
I never liked PinkBerry much, and I'm happy I made the right decision since the beginning. Never liked Kiwiberry much either. In City of Industry/Rowland Heights those 2 are not my pick, but I LUVVVVV
Cefiore, and I'm glad you agreed :-p
I LUVVVVVV Cefiore's Acai & Original Twist flavor.
Now I just hope Red Mango will consider this neighbourhood... then I'll be all set!!!
I am so not a fan of Cefiore, but I guess I'll give it ONE more try. Personally, it's all about Menchies in Valley Village.
I got quite a few thank you's from readers who tried it after I posted about it.
http://laist.com/2008/03/12/screw_pinkberry.php
The thing I like about Cefiore isn't really their yogurt (although I like it better than Pinkberry, especially the Acai) - it's that I can get mochi on top! Also, the Little Tokyo location has the nicest staff and it's a cool place to hang out and drink coffee late in the evening. Very mellow, unhurried vibe across from a great shabu shabu restaurant (and, actually, right next door to a mochi bar)...
Whereas at Pinkberry, you are not encouraged to linger and it feels more like "get your yogurt and get out", chemicals aside.
you know, i don't really give a shit if it contains LIVE FECES CULTURES -- i fucking love me some pinkberry, kids. after one landed here in my fair city (la canada), i tried and tried and tried and tried to avoid giving it a shot. too in-my-fucking-face and annoying, i declared in my best "i'm above this sort of trendy nonsense horseshit" voice. and then...i tasted it. and that's all she fucking wrote. i do actually believe that there is some sort of addictive additive imbued in the stuff -- but i don't even care. i'm pathetic. just gimme my next fix.
xoxo
I'd rather have gelato, and in the fro yo wars Pinkberry is low on my list of preferences, but I will staunchly defend LAist's coverage of it.
@Zach - fighting a Pinkberry in Sherman Oaks - where can I sign up?
Yeah, im all for Gelato over over this crap anyday.
@delara
http://www.shermanoaksnc.org/committees/landuse.php
They meet every third Monday of the month. or you can keep up with the minutes.
Red Mango pwns all teh Lameberries out there.
Not Menchies Militant, I dare you to take your bike up to Valley Village and give it a try :)
I'm no chemist but I have an inkling that if you asked one to detail the contents of, say, an orange or a squirt of milk from a cow's udder, his response would contain quite a few multisyllabic words with lots of y's and x's and ph's in them. Chemicals aren't necessarily anything to be afraid of, kids.
I hated Pinkberry before they killed Weiner Factory and I hate them even more now. My previous posts about this caused random people to hunt down my email address to ask me where they could sign up to be notified of Weiner Factory's new location (they had a clipboard on site the last few weeks they were open... I have not yet received news on a new location). Back to yogurt, a couple of weekends ago when it got hot I went to Humphrey's Yogurt on Van Nuys (they've been going strong since the first fro-yo fad back in the mid to late 80s) and it was great and is wasn't overpriced. They even have the sweet vs tart options and green tea for those of you who like the taste of that Pinkberry crap. :)
Callie: You can get mochi on Pinkberry too. Just ask for it. They have it at all the locations, it's just in the fridge.
Really? I had no idea. Not that I should be wandering back into Pinkberry land anytime soon...thanks for the rec, Mal!