The frozen yoghurt phenomenon

I have noticed two obsessions with ‘berry’s’ here in Bahrain. The first one is the annoying intrusion on your life called the Blackberry. And the second one is a much more pleasurable intrusion on your life called ‘Pinkberry’. Far from being another technological phenomenon, ‘Pinkberry’ is in fact a frozen yoghurt phenomenon.

Have you tried it? I have to say it is amazing.

For those of you not familiar with the ‘Pinkberry’ craze, let me give you a little update. Hot from America, it is the latest trend in ‘can’t live without’. Its a frozen yoghurt (but I think it’s more like melted ice-cream). Its smooth, silky and it’s definitely sexy (yes, frozen yoghurt can be sexy!) and like the Blackberry, it also flashes red for your attention (Pomegranate) as well as light green, brown and beige (Green tea, chocolate and Vanilla). You can enjoy on its own or trim it up with extras such as candy and fruit. And the best thing about Pinkberry? It’s all low fat (so they say).

You can’t really miss the Pinkberry store in the City Centre Mall. Firstly, its sugary, pastel coloured trendy furnishings immediately attract your attention. Secondly, it is the only place to have a ridiculous queue of people snaking halfway around the mall. I have also noticed it’s a place where the good looking people go. Definitely girls donning massive sunglasses, immaculate make up and high heeled shoes. Oh and they will always be holding their Blackberry’s, arm bent with a swinging Louis Vuitton bag. They seem to live by the rule that since there is no fat in the yoghurt; it is only right that they should compensate by buying the biggest tub ever, topped with lots of fruit and even more candy.

Visiting the Pinkberry store can be an unsettling experience. Firstly you are greeted with Alessi branded kitchen merchandise (super trendy, bright coloured plastic) which to be honest is a bit expensive, and a bit silly. You kind of wish you could revamp your kitchen with all these bright coloured plastics that manage to hypnotise you on the way to the counter, then you see the price for an egg cup and remember you don’t eat boiled eggs anyway. Then there is everyone sat at the tables checking you out as you queue in line, as if they are giving an approval to whether you are worthy of eating the delicious stuff. They look at me as if to say ‘girls who wear flip flops can’t eat Pinkberry’. You have to endure a whole queue of this until you get to the front where someone screams at you ‘Hello maaaaam, welcome to Pinkberry!’ and you have to scream your order back since they are so far behind the counter. You get to the till where it is evident that being ‘cool’ comes at a price, ‘That’s BD2.225 maaaaaam’. That’s for a small scoop and 4 raspberries. It’s a small price to pay for being healthy apparently.

But is it healthy? Well, Pinkberry’s selling point is that it contains low fat and non fat flavours making it every girls dream. However, having no fat doesn’t mean no sugar. It has reduced sugar according to the staff at Pinkberry, Bahrain. I personally have to wonder how much exactly the sugar is reduced by since I haven’t ever been able to dose my insulin correctly when eating it, and I always end up with a high blood sugar.  I have actually found alternative frozen yoghurt at Cineco at City Centre which is completely sugar free, this is great for me but not great for my chocolate cravings since it is only available in Vanilla.

Anyway….I think the obsession has gone too far when all of my bosses send our driver on Pinkberry runs.  This being a mission in itself with a race against time (actually the sun) in a bid to prevent the stuff becoming melted goo. The driver is summoned and an order is made for ‘medium pomegranate with kiwi and raspberry-quickly huh!?’ He then belts down to his car, charges to Pinkberry and races back where he makes a frantic call to the office boy on route.  It is imperative to the mission that he is waiting outside of our building as soon as the driver pulls up so that the 45 degrees heat doesn’t melt it. The office boy then rushes back upstairs where it could go either way; the lifts could take 7 minutes (as they often do) or luck could be on his side and he makes it 2 minutes. Believe me the time is critical to the yoghurts consistency. By the time the office boy enters the office, the receptionist will have already prepared the bowl with its matching spoon where the yoghurt is then served on a platter to ma-dam.

I have also witnessed my bosses using Pinkberry as some kind of party trick when a meeting is flagging…’who wants Pinkberry!?’ Ta-da!!! This was in fact how Pinkberry came to my attention. I was in a meeting with both of my bosses when the office boy bumbled in and delivered 2 bowls of this sumptuous, glistening yoghurt. They asked me if I wanted some. Well, I did to be honest but felt it was a bit impolite to accept, so I declined. Then they just proceeded to ‘uuuuuummmmm’ and ‘areeeeeeee’ over this yoghurt, talking in Arabic while analysing the contents of their tubs, digging their spoons into each other’s pots, he takes her raspberry, she takes his kiwi, all the time whilst I was trying to relay meeting notes. Well, it was all a bit much for me and I couldn’t concentrate, such was the pleasure radiating from the two!

After that incident, I made it a point to try the magic goo myself.

I have to admit I have been drawn into the Pinkberry thing and it has become a bit of a ritual of ours to go on a Friday after lunch. I take the chocolate and opt for raspberry toppings and Adi has the exotic Green tea version. However, as stated earlier, I haven’t managed to does my insulin correctly with Pinkberry so I have had to wean myself off the frozen goo. I have turned to London Dairy Sugar Free ice-cream as a substitute. Okay so it doesn’t have the same texture as the yoghurt, but if you leave it to melt for long enough, you are not far off.

So a little less of Pinkberry for me, I think I can live without it. But the Blackberry? No way!