If you haven’t yet noticed, ice cream is out, and frozen yogurt is in. And not the kind of sugary frozen yogurt we associate with the likes of TCBY, but actual yogurt that happens to be a frozen treat.
Orange Cup is one of the newest players in this yogurt game (other ventures in the same vein are Pinkberry and Red Mango, both based in California with no stores in Texas). Its one and only store (for now) is at NorthPark Center, just outside of Neiman Marcus on the second level. If you do shop at NorthPark but don’t often venture upstairs to the newest and least familiar part of the shopping center (a Back Talk post for another day), then you’ve almost certainly missed it.
Which is a shame, because Orange Cup‘s yogurt is definitely worth a try. The premise is simple: Pick your flavor; pick your topping(s). Making this even easier, only three flavors are available: natural, züm and acaiberry (pronounced uh-sigh-berry). Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it is located right outside of Neiman Marcus, and I learned from Orange Cup’s spokeswoman, Hazel Cobb, that CEO Kevin Lee and CFO Young Lee strategically chose not to be located in NorthPark’s food court area, "because we’re really not a food court concept." It’s as much of a philosophy as a company, she says.
In other words, they’re catering to people who are a bit wealthier and looking for a food "experience" rather than people who simply want to fill up at Sonic and Chick-fil-A. And they’re pretty successful in this endeavor in a number of ways:
• The stuff actually tastes like yogurt. Like its predecessor Red Mango, Orange Cup’s yogurt contains enough live and active cultures to be certified by the National Yogurt Association.
• The "extras", or toppings, are not things like Heath bars and Oreo cookies. The only "sweets" per say are dark chocolate and coconut, both of which have valuable nutrients, according to Orange Cup’s website. The other toppings are mostly nuts and fresh fruit, including rarer finds like mangoes, kiwis, blackberries …
• The "light" or small size, which is ample enough for a snack but probably not an entire meal, contains between 100 and 117 calories, depending on which flavor you choose. Once you add toppings, the total calories and other nutritional facts are printed out on a small sticker placed on your yogurt bowl.
• Those bowls are made with post-consumer and recyclable material, as is all of their packaging, and different bins are provided for paper, plastic and food waste. The company also has a reward program for its bowl-holder bags; every time you buy two cups and reuse the bag, you get a sticker, and 12 stickers equals an organic T-shirt.
• They call their employees "cupsters" and their managers "culturists". (Need I say more?)
Orange Cup plans to open 35 stores within the next 18 months, including three more in the metro area. A standalone at Stonebriar in Frisco will be next, and stores at Preston Center and the Galleria will follow.
