Almost two weeks ago, Treat Petite on the corner of 7th Avenue and Grove Street in the West Village opened; serving coffee, tea, smoothies and frozen yogurt. You can pair your yogurt with crunchy sweet and salty additional ingredients like any other frozen yogurt shop in the city and your smoothies can be made with a variety of fruits. So what's unique about this new establishment? The yogurt used here is made from kefir milk and believe it or not, this is the first smoothie place in the city to use this product.

Why kefir? It is a fermented milk that is similar to a thinned out yogurt but it contains more probiotics. This enzyme enriched product is known to be more nutritious and restorative than yogurt, it supplies complete protein, essential minerals, and valuable B vitamins. It also helps balance your digestive system. Pregnant or nursing woman should drink this because it is a great source of nutrients. In kefir, you find about 12 probiotic cultures while regular yogurt only contains up to three strains of active cultures.

Kefir is good for you for many reasons: it stimulates digestion, improves immunity, helps you lose weight and most important for those with digestion issues, it helps to alleviate lactose intolerance, IBS, Crohn's disease and colitis.

It is available as a soft-serve treat in the original flavor, mango, pomegranate, peanut butter and more. For a smoothie that you can build on your own, they allow you to pick three fruits. We tried a pomegranate kefir smoothie with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. It was absolutely divine and all of the health benefits make you feel good about enjoying a perfect mid-day treat.

This lovely addition to the trendy village neighborhood is also serving gluten free waffles. We suggest you try it with a topping of speculoos spread.