Reed, 23, ate her silky treat, including almonds and berries atop a waffle, at the month-old Oko on First Avenue, near St. Marks Place. Oko joins a slew of other frozen yogurt spots that have recently opened in a two-block radius here — and some ice cream parlors are seeing customers melt away.

Unlike the first wave of frozen yogurt of the 1980s, which tried to match the pleasure of ice cream by using artificial sweeteners that kept the calorie count down, this new craze is all about the tartness of yogurt and being natural.

Oko, which translates to “eco” in Hungarian (the store’s counters are made from sunflower seeds, its spoons from potatoes, its cups from corn; it also uses Greek yogurt homemade by a couple in Astoria), moved to the East Village following the success of its year-old Park Slope shop. Pinkberry opened on St. Marks Place in March (the L.A.-based company now has 13 New York locations) just a few doors down from the nine-month-old Very Berry. There’s also a shop on that block that sells Yolato, another competitor on the burgeoning tart-frozen-yogurt scene.

Lauren McInnes, 23, describes the hankering: “I’ll be sitting in the office and it’s 4 p.m. and I want an excuse to walk around. It’s like nonfood. It doesn’t fill you up,” she said while digging in to a regular flavored yogurt with kiwi and mango at Pinkberry yesterday. “I wouldn’t eat ice cream once a week.”

Business at Cold Stone Creamery on Eighth Street picked up since the store began selling soup through the SoupMan franchise eight months ago, but manager Christine Siderakis said ice cream sales have hit a plateau. Just a few weeks ago, Cold Stone launched a new brand of frozen yogurt, she added.

“We’re doing good, so far, but I think last summer was much better,” said Jennifer Soto, who scoops out ice cream at Australian Homemade on St. Marks Place. “It was more packed then.”