Sweet Tart

A few blocks away, Steve Davis works his own frozen yogurt shop, named Mr. Yogato, a sly reference to the 1983 song "Mr. Roboto" by the band Styx. The store, which opened late last month, serves up the same type of tart yogurt as Tangysweet but in a decidedly more playful atmosphere. Cartoon berries are painted on the walls, the trash can is shaped like a rocket, and one set of table and chairs is Smurf-blue.

"We're not cool and hip," Davis said. "We are fun and goofy."

Actually, Davis is a rocket scientist who is still employed full time with space exploration and technology company Spacex. He moved to the Washington area about a year ago from the company's L.A. office, where he and his buddies would go to Pinkberry for lunch almost every day. Once in the District, Davis and his friends suffered tart yogurt withdrawal and decided to launch their own store.

They pooled their cash and brought on a few more friends and relatives as investors. The hardest part, Davis said, was coming up with the recipe. They cycled through more than 100 batches before hitting what would become "original tangy." The store also sells a traditional, sweet frozen yogurt flavor and has two rotating flavors each week.

Meanwhile, other competitors are ramping up operations. Red Mango chief executive Dan Kim said the chain is "aggressively" seeking locations in Tysons Corner, Reston, Bethesda and Georgetown and hopes to secure its first site in the next month. In Virginia, Iceberry has opened stores in Reston, South Riding, Springfield and Chantilly, with another in Georgetown planned for the end of summer. Sweetgreen, which sells salads and tart yogurt, is planning a second location in Dupont Circle after nearly one year in business in Georgetown.

"Even if it's pouring rain or snowing, people will run in to get their yogurt," said Nicolas Jammet, who founded the store with two friends during his senior year at Georgetown University.

But beware: The buzz can bite back. Pinkberry was hit with a class-action lawsuit last year from customers who claimed that its tart frozen yogurt didn't live up to its name. California law requires yogurt to be made off-site, rather than in stores. Pinkberry now mixes its product in a dairy and settled the suit in April, agreeing to donate $750,000 to charity and list ingredients online.

There are no Food and Drug Administration guidelines dictating the ingredients for frozen yogurt, but plain yogurt is made by culturing milk or cream with the lactic-acid-producing bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The FDA generally defines ice cream as made by freezing pasteurized milk or cream and flavoring it with sweeteners.

American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Katherine Tallmadge, who has indulged in Tangysweet, said that the new tart yogurts are healthier than ice cream, healthier even than most traditional frozen yogurt -- but that doesn't make them health foods. A half-cup of Red Mango's original flavor has 90 calories and contains 260 milligrams of potassium, 15 grams of sugar and three grams of protein. The same serving of skim milk yogurt, however, delivers only 63 calories and nine grams of sugar, and packs 288 mg of potassium and seven grams of protein.

"It's a treat. And I'm not against treats," Tallmadge said of the tart frozen yogurts. But she added: "It's not as good as eating fruit. Nothing is as good as eating fruit or vegetables as your snack."

Despite the current craze, frozen yogurt orders at restaurants are still about one-tenth of what they were during its peak nearly two decades ago, according to Balzer of NPD. And it still has a long way to go before sales even begin to come close to those of ice cream.

One ice cream shop has that has withstood the test of time is Gifford's Ice Cream and Candy, one of Washington's oldest scoopers. It is planning to open its sixth store soon, in Hyattsville. The chain also is also seeking franchisees and hopes to open another 25 locations between Baltimore and Richmond.

"We're sort of the anti-trend," said Neal Lieberman, chief executive. "I think they've done a nice job with some of the packaging. It's sort of a unique taste. But we feel like there's plenty of room for us."