The Myka Greek frozen yogurt chain that gridlocked a quiet sidewalk in the West Village planted its\u00a0flag next to Radio City Music Hall last week. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second location in NYC for the TikTok-famous fro yo (not including a clandestine window in Union Square), and the Midtown line is already as long as for some of the shows next door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The West Village location of Myka draws long lines. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
As ridiculous as the viral frenzy is,\u00a0at least the product mostly tastes good \u2014 some times even great \u2014 when you finally get your hands on it, unlike the sickly sweet, chemical-menace\u00a0Dot Cakes.<\/p>\n
Myka is the breakout star\u00a0of a Greek frozen yogurt boom\u00a0that\u2019s swept Greenwich Village, the Upper East Side, Park Slope and even Bloomingdale\u2019s seventh floor.<\/p>\n
The original, plain flavor is pleasingly tart, a tasty vehicle for toppings. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
The brand was launched not in Greece but in Madrid by entrepreneurs Natalia Morales and Javier Ezquerro. It has 240 franchise locations, including\u00a0Miami Beach, Barcelona, Paris, Mexico City and Panama City \u2014 and soon in London. TikTok and Instagram posts by and about Myka attract tens of thousands \u2014\u00a0and even hundreds of thousands \u2014\u00a0of views. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Myka\u00a0calls it self \u201can elevated take on frozen yogurt rooted in authenticity, quality and craft.\u201d The basic, plain variety is made from premium Greek yogurt, pasteurized milk and goat kefir to produce a treat that\u2019s \u201cdense, creamy and delightfully tangy,\u201d according to the brand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all those things \u2014 and also a little mysterious, because the sweet-and-tart yogurt had a distinctly lemony under-taste every time I had it. The Myka people say there are no \u201cartificial additives,\u201d but won\u2019t say everything that\u2019s in their \u201cproprietary recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The yogurt makes a suitable\u00a0platform for nearly 30 toppings, which ranged from meh to marvelous.<\/p>\n
Servings, in 2-, 4- and 6-ounce cups, are bigger than the numbers suggest, thanks to generously tall swirls on top.\u00a0 Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
Dark chocolate sauce poured over fine-ground pistachios and\u00a0crunchy granola solidified into toothsome candy. \u00a0(You can order up to three toppings.) Baklava delivered a satisfying, honey-tinged deliciousness all on its own. <\/p>\n
On the other hand,\u00a0dulce de leche sauce was cloyingly sweet and messy.<\/p>\n
The house pride is\u00a0the \u201cMyka special.\u201d Extra virgin olive oil, orange blossom honey and pistachios make a sparkling \u00a0Mediterranean medley on top of the yogurt. But it\u2019s\u00a0also supposed to come with orange compote, which they were\u00a0out of at both locations when I dropped in. \u201cStrait of Hormuz problem,\u201d the counter guy joked. Red berry compote filled in but the combo wanted the missing bitter orange note.<\/p>\n
Customers can choose from an array of toppings. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
There are \u201cseasonal\u201d yogurt flavors as well. The only one I got to try, passionfruit, was as sickly-sweet as a popsicle and out of synch with\u00a0the toppings.<\/p>\n
Servings in 2-, 4- and 6-ounce cups, are bigger than the numbers suggest, thanks to generously tall swirls on top.\u00a0 They range from $12 to $14.15 depending on how many toppings you order.<\/p>\n
But the greater cost is your time.\u00a0After a near-half hour\u00a0on line, you\u2019ll waste more minutes when you finally reach the counters. Customers scrunched into\u00a0tiny storefronts are slow to choose among\u00a0 \u201csignature\u201d toppings, such as baklava and maikatifi (pistachio with pastry bits), crumbles, candied nuts, sauces, compotes, goji berries and fresh fruit. The staff pronounces any of them you order \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, is any trendy frozen yogurt really worth the hassle? <\/p>\n
Steve Cuozzo liked the yogurt but not the line. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
Maybe for Gen Z types with neither jobs nor school obligations. For me, Myka\u2019s lines \u00a0are too long, and life\u2019s too short, no matter how many TikTok and Instagram clicks it gets.<\/p>\n
If I want a junk-food treat, I\u2019m happy with soft serve from a truck \u2014 there\u2019s never a wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Myka Greek frozen yogurt chain that gridlocked a quiet sidewalk in the West Village planted its\u00a0flag next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34876,1538,24341,289,3956,232,9820,9,56,63,65,64,9740],"class_list":["post-274845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-casual-dining","tag-dessert","tag-desserts","tag-food-drink","tag-instagram","tag-lifestyle","tag-manhatta","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}