Day 230 - Mango 100% Juice Smoothie

We are still at the Indy Fringe Festival.  David is performing his solo show “A Little Business at the Big Top” (I directed it).  We travel to festivals all around and all of them have one thing in common – the people involved with productions do not eat healthy and are exhausted.

So on our trip to Trader Joe’s, I picked up this Mango 100% Juice Smoothie, thinking it would be a healthy addition to our diet.

Not cheap, but chock full of health

And it was!  As soon as I took the first sip I felt a jolt of HEALTH coursing through my veins!  (Even though, technically, the juice was in my MOUTH and my esophagus, not my veins, but you know what I mean…)  It felt like I was pouring a whole mango into my body!  And mangos are both TASTY and HEALTHY. 

Mango is definitely the strongest flavor in this juice, but the label tells me it also contains banana puree, apple juice, orange juice, and lemon juice.  And it is an excellent source of vitamin A and a good source of vitamin C. 

Ahhh - a chug of health

I sort of feel like I should invest in a case of these juices and hand them out to weary performers at the Fringe Beer Tent.  They would do everyone a world of good!  David doesn’t like this smoothie and so wouldn’t drink one, but that would just leave more for other performers. 

This is David in the Indianapolis Trader Joe's PRETENDING he is going to like this Mango Smoothie.  He had already decided he thought it looked yucky, but we liked the CLOUDS they have hanging up so he was being all angelic or something...

I wish the juice was a litttttle less thick, but it IS a smoothie and not a juice, so I guess I cannot rightfully complain.  It comes in a one pint plastic recyclable bottle. 

If I had a Trader Joe’s smoothie competition, I would say this one beats the Very Green Smoothie (reviewed on day 156 of this blog) and the Strawberry Chia Smoothie (reviewed on day 145 of this blog).  This one does the best to balance YUMMY TASTE with GOOD FOR YOU.

Price - $2.99

Rating - 4

Day 156 - Very Green 100% Juice Smoothie

We visited YET ANOTHER Trader Joe’s today!!!  This one was in Pembroke Pines, FL.  The Captain (manager), I think her name was Sarah, was super sweet.  And I really liked some of the signage in this store – it was all beach-y/Florida themes!  Nice. 

Their sample area is called THE GECKO GALLEY - perfect for Florida!!

This was a big painted sign on the front window - "Trader Joe's, where shopping is always a picnic"  :)

One product we picked up was the Very Green 100% Juice Smoothie.  While I adore green veggies, we do not often drink green drinks.  David, in fact, wrinkled up his nose at the prospect of tasting this…

You can tell he is thinking, "Do I really have this??  It is YOUR project, Susan...."

The label on the front says this smoothie is a blend of banana, mango and kiwi purees, apple and pineapple juice, and (I quote) “green foods and other added ingredients”.  Hmmm….  The “green foods” part was a bit off-putting…  Green WHAT?  Oh sure, I doubt it would be green M&Ms, but still, why the secret???  However, when I took time to read the nutritional information, I found out what all of the ingredients were, including the seemingly top secret ones not listed on the front:  apple juice, banana puree, mango puree, pineapple juice, kiwi puree, spirulina, chlorella (what the hell is that one??), natural flavor, dried greens blend (broccoli, spinach, barley grass, ginger, blue green algae, parsley, garlic).

GARLIC?  In a SMOOTHIE? 

As you can see it really IS very green!

But guess what?  It is not half bad!  It says 2 servings, and I would say that is accurate, not sure I would want to chug the whole 16 oz container in one sitting, but it was good.  The first and strongest taste I got was banana (ironic, since bananas are not green, unless of course you are eating/drinking unripe bananas…).  We also could taste the mango and apple juice and perhaps a hint of pineapple.  It tasted like I was drinking something HEALTHY, but not like I was trying to force down medicine or anything.   I think it is quite expensive for the amount of drink you get, but I guess if you think of the cost of all of the ingredients it is probably not over-priced.

And guess what again?  EVEN DAVID LIKED IT!  Oh sure, at first he only took a teeny tiny sip cuz he was nervous.  But after a drink or two he had to admit that it was good.

Price - $2.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 145 - Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie

I thought it was just ME who was childish.  But no, lucky for me, it turns out my partner David is, too J. 

We rushed into the Orlando Trader Joe’s today with only a few minutes to shop between seeing plays.  We wanted a SALAD so that we could have a healthy meal (as opposed to the poutine, pizza, and other meal choices available from vendors at the festival (though we did have a good Greek salad from a vendor one night…).  Anyway, it was super hot out (as Orlando can be in the summer time…) and I decided a cold, healthy drink was in order, too (to balance out all the beer from the festival).  So I grabbed this Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie.

If you do not know from previous reviews on this blog, we are not health nuts.  We do not go out of our way to buy things with fancy organic ingredients, and CHIA, in my mind, is only for pets, as in the Willy Nelson Chia Pet I saw on the clearance table at Office Depot recently!  (Why a gem like that would be on a clearance table is beyond me!!)  Anyway, I thought it was just me who would think something so silly, then David quipped, “If I drink this will chia grass grow in my belly?”.  Haha – see why we get along so well?

A pint of health - strawberry chia smoothie 

So this “strawberry puree flavored blend with apple juice and chia seeds” is pretty good.  It mostly tastes like strawberry.  But there are strange little BUMPS all up in it…  At first I thought they were the little bits from the outside of strawberries, then I realized, duh, those are the CHIA SEEDS!  They are actually a bit more fine and delicate than a strawberry seed thing would be.  This drink is chock full of them.  After the first sip or two I got used to them, but still, if I am going to have “bits” in my drink, I would rather they be tapioca bubbles (yum – bubble tea!!).

I would say this snack drink would be better consumed not in the hot humid sun.  I can picture it going down better while a person is sitting at their desk and needs a bit of an afternoon pick-me-up. 

Price – $2.99

Rating – 3.25