When the winter months hit, it might be instinctive to seek out warm beverages or soup, but many Rockland residents are heading out for some frozen yogurt.

In early November, Yogurt Sensations opened in New City at 191 South Main Street.  Even now as the temperature is dropping, people are coming from around the county to try the 12 assorted flavors and 50 toppings the store offers.

“We like to say it’s a healthy addiction,” said Owner Martin Cohen. “In less than two months, we already have a lot of regulars who come in all the time and have their favorites."

The flavors include red velvet, cake batter, vanilla tart, thin mint, cookies and cream and more. There’s also always one flavor of sorbet.

Cohen of Blauvelt also owns Louie’s Ice Cream in Blauvelt, and said he had been thinking about opening a yogurt place for a few years before he was able to do so. He said he was looking at several locations and picked the current one for a few reasons.

“I liked how this one was in this shopping area,” he said.  “It’s a place where you have people walking around from one store to another, and now they can stop in for some yogurt real quick.  And then you’ve got people working at the other stores who can stop in as well.”

He said he opened in November because that’s when construction on the restaurant in the Town Shopping Plaza was finished.

“I wanted it done right,” he said. “We have brand new floors, new walls, new everything. We’ve got state of the art equipment, all the machines are brand new. So I didn’t want to open before I felt like everything was ready to open.”

Still, Cohen said even as it moves into winter, people are stopping in to enjoy his frozen yogurt.

“The community has been so positive,” he said.  “I’m really appreciative of all the people who’ve come out to support us so far.  We’re not a franchise, we’re privately owned.”

Cohen said he’s heard that a frozen yogurt franchise is going to move into the same shopping center, but didn’t say which or when.

“All we can do is provide the highest quality product we can,” he said.  “We buy the highest-quality ingredients.  We post the nutrition and allergy charts here, and people seem to like being able to read those.  All of our products are kosher. So we can’t worry if another place is going to move in close to here.  We just have to hold ourselves to a high standard.”

Cohen added that he hopes business will pick up in the warm weather, although he’s not disappointed with how it’s gone since opening either.

“In the [Blauvelt] store, since we’ve started selling this yogurt, we’ve sold more it in five months than in the past two-and-a-half years of selling other brands of yogurt,” he said.

Cohen said, and so he wants to encourage even more local customers. He said if someone brings in a receipt from any restaurant on the same day they went there, they get 10 percent off.  He added that a same-day movie ticket stub will get someone 15 percent off.  Cohen also has a frequent eater card that gets punched on each visit, and after 10 visits the cardholder get a free order.

Yogurt Sensations is also open to working with schools and other organizations for fundraisers, and Cohen said any interested parties should get in touch with him.

Cohen said he’s currently in the process of opening a second Yogurt Sensations in Rockland, but didn’t want to say where just yet.

Yogurt Sensations is open seven days a week, from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The phone number is 845-708-5299.