By Molly Calkins

NEW YORK – At 4:00 p.m. at the Pinkberry on 2nd Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, a barista glances at the most recent order and ladles out a bunch of raspberries.  Placing them around the inner edge of a cup of frozen yogurt, she looks at the order and adds a spoonful of chocolate chips.  Laying these on top of the tower of yogurt, she peeks again at the order, gathers a spoon of coconut shavings and sprinkles them into the cup.  She hands the cup to a pregnant woman dressed in business clothes and watches as another woman glides into the store.  The young woman moves across the pebble-covered floor to the beat of the music on her iPod.  The employee at the cash register prints the young woman’s order and hands it to the barista who reads it, scoops, and pours.  Painting the blank white canvas, the barista repeats the motions, adding color to the yogurt while listening to the gossiping of the teenage girls now waiting for their own fruit-filled fro-yo.
            Welcome to Pinkberry, the chain of trendy and minimalist frozen yogurt stores that have become all the rage in New York and California. Pinkberry’s concept is simple. The shop offers customers a choice of three flavors of frozen yogurt: original, green tea, and coffee.  To invent their own edible work of art, customers choose from a variety of toppings, including fresh fruit, granola, cereal, almonds, and chocolate. The company envisions its mix of fruity, sweet, and healthy toppings as “your palette” and the yogurt as “your canvas.” Each finished cup contains someone’s very own fro-yo fantasy.
            “It was so satisfying, yet so light and delicious.  I crave it as much as I would crave chocolate cake, but it’s healthy and you feel satisfied and not too full after,” says Jessica Hendricks, an NYU student, describing the first time she tasted Pinkberry.
            Pinkberry’s success signals how Americans are ditching high-calorie treats and, instead, flipping for fro-yo.  The buzz around Pinkberry and the springing up of imitators represents the resurgence of frozen yogurt, according to TIME.  For some, Pinkberry provides a health-conscious meal.  For others, especially those who find their lives increasingly hectic, Pinkberry offers a quick and simple solution.  For all who have been captured by Pinkberry’s artistry, the chain’s popularity stems from its delivery of fun, healthy, and personalized culinary creations. 
            “I think they were smart to pick up on a trend of the health conscious trendy young crowd…offering low calorie dessert with fresh toppings,” says Yasuko Yamamoto, a self-described Pinkberry lover who works in the Soho design office at OskKosh B’Gosh. 
            Pinkberry prides itself on its non-fat and low-calorie product.  According to an employee at the Spring Street Pinkberry, a small cup of Pinkberry’s original frozen yogurt is 150 calories. 
            The store prominently displays the calorie range for toppings, which varies from between 10 and 80 calories per topping.  Depending on the size and number of toppings, the price for a cup of frozen yogurt ranges between $4 and $8.
            While some customers find Pinkberry pricey for dessert, many say that they go to Pinkberry as a replacement for lunch or dinner.  As a substitute for larger meals, Pinkberry offers a quick alternative. 
            The shop seems especially popular among the youth, twenty-something women, and the urban business crowd.  Many New Yorkers echo the opinion of Jill Levy, an account executive at the children’s clothes company Carter’s, who says that the stores near her office and apartment are always packed.  In fact, many customers who like Pinkberry’s fun, hip look complain that the stores tend to be overcrowded.  “The stores are small…and given the crowd that spills out of the store, I don’t think there’s adequate seating,” says Yamamoto.
            Pinkberry’s constant crowds have likely led to large profits.  Though the company won’t discuss its sales, an article in Fortune from 2007 estimates that one Pinkberry store attracts 1,500 customers per day and could easily make $250,000 each month. 
            Because of the concept’s success, competitors, like Berri Good, Diet Berry, Blue Mango, and Red Mango, have popped up.  Red Mango, a frozen yogurt chain that originated in South Korea in 2002, says that Pinkberry actually copied its idea, according to ABC News. 
            Pinkberry tells a different story.  “The founders had originally planned to open a tea house at the location but due to parking and liquor license issues that plan was stalled and instead they decided to open a frozen yogurt store after getting their inspiration from an Italian gelateria/yogurteria they had visited years earlier,” says Pinkberry’s press representative Heather Wilson. 
            So inspired, South Korean entrepreneur Hyekyung (Shelly) Hwang and her business partner, Young Lee, a designer, opened the first frozen yogurt shop in 2005 in West Hollywood, California.  Three years later, their shop would become one of the trendiest and most successful of America’s fro-yo chains.  Hwang and Lee haven’t yet expanded Pinkberry outside of Southern California or New York City, but Wilson says that Pinkberry does have plans to open in new markets. Whether or not Pinkberry copied Red Mango or Red Mango copied Pinkberry, the reality is that frozen yogurt shops seem to be everywhere.  “It’s remarkable.  You literally can’t walk down the street without seeing four frozen yogurt places,” says Hendricks. 
            When walking along a New York City street, Pinkberry’s brightness does indeed beckon.  The store’s glass front reveals a light, modern interior full of people savoring their tangy and delicious artworks.  Pastel polka-dots adorn the glass wall, complementing the calm and open feeling inside.  Clearly, the store’s minimalism and originality extend to its physical look.  Light fixtures hang over white countertops and tables, where groups of two or three chat and savor. 
            Even Pinkberry critics like the store’s atmosphere.  “When I first tried it, I was surprised how much it did not taste like frozen yogurt/ice cream but instead like actual yogurt,” says Levy, who doesn’t like the taste of Pinkberry but thinks the stores have a cute look.

            At 8:15 p.m. at the 2nd Avenue Pinkberry, frozen yogurt continues to swirl out of shiny metal tubs.  The baristas dip spoons into containers of fresh blueberries, slices of succulent strawberry, Oreo pieces, kiwi, Captain Crunch cereal, and fifteen other tasty toppings.  They scoop from the palette of fruit, cereal, and sweets, brushing them into small, medium, or large cups.  Two friends converse as they sit and taste their dessert.  An older man raises a spoon of white fro-yo dotted with vibrant color toward his mouth.  A twenty-year old woman strides to the counter after a long day.  She removes her iPod earphones from her ears and places her order.  Minutes later, her masterpiece melts in her mouth as she savors her first bite.