A few months back I accidentally indulged in a rather sugary smoothie over at Panera Bread, and wound up with the worst cast of Dumping Syndrome thus far. When I wasn’t feeling like I was about to pass out I seriously considered the possibility that I was dying. Yes, it was that bad. What did I nearly die (okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit) on? A strawberry and mango smoothie. Correction: half (6 oz.) of a strawberry and mango smoothie.
So when Jamba Juice recently launched their line of Jamba All Natural Smoothies and began scouting around for bloggers to try them out and blog about their experience, I took a quick peek at the nutritional facts and signed right up. What had me sold? The sugar content, of course. One package of Jamba All natural Smoothies has just 10g to 15g of sugar. When combined with low-sugar apple juice (I recommend Mott’s), the total jumps to 25g to 30g of sugar. Yes, 30g of sugar is about 10g more than what I can tolerate, but that’s for two 8 oz. smoothies. Split into quarters (there are four of us, after all), that’s just 7.5g of sugar in a delicious and delightfully cold smoothie, which is just the perfect thing to enjoy on a hot afternoon or sultry evening.
Things worth noting about Jamba All Natural Smoothies:
- each package makes two 8 oz. smoothies
- each 8 oz. smoothie serves up one full serving of fruit and 100% daily value of Vitamin C
- the smoothies are made out of real fruit and non-fat yogurt
- as the name implies, the smoothies are all natural and contain no artifical flavors, colors, or preservatives
Jamba All Natural Smoothies are available in three Jamba Juice signature flavors: Mango-a-go-go, Razzmatazz, and Strawberries Wild. For my first smoothie, I was very tempted to try the Mango-a-go-go (I’m a sucker for mango), but Alyssa and Ryan talked me into Strawberries wild, so that’s what we went with. All we needed to whip up some yummy smoothies was Jamba’s All Natural Smoothies mix, 8 oz. of apple juice, and a blender.
A minute later we were ready to drink up.
The verdict? Delicious!
Jamba All Natural Smoothies are incredibly easy to make, they taste incredible, and they really cool you down on a hot day. As an added bonus, their thick consistency and yummy fruit flavor does a great job of masking the powdered flavorless protein I often mix into certain foods. As a post-op gastric bypass patient, getting enough protein in every day is essential to optimal weight loss and the maintaining of muscle mass, so the use of protein powder as a protein supplement is something I do all of the time. That doesn’t mean I enjoy the texture and slight aftertaste of it, however. Fortunately, I was able to mostly cover that up in the Jamba All Natural Smoothies. But I’ll purchase additional smoothie kits not because of the ability to “hide” protein in the smoothies, but because they’re low enough in sugar for me to tolerate, and they are fantastically tasting!
Rating: 
I make my own strawberry banana smoothies
Just use frozen strawberries, half or a whole banana, vanilla yogurt, sugar or substitute to taste, and ice. It’s really yummy. And if you want to make it a milkshake instead just substitute ice cream for the yogurt!
It’s always nice to have something prepackaged though. Looks yummy!
(P.S. comment form is still all wonky in Opera, wonder if it’s just me?)