Innocent Smoothie > Reviews (40)

'Innocent' Pure Fruit Smoothie caught my eye on the shelf of my local Budgen's the other day.....ok to be totally honest, what actually caught my eye was the rather dishy looking brunette guy with the bulging biceps buying the spring water next to it ...so how best to catch his attention, aha, I'm clever me, I moved my hand along the shelf and (seductively) slid my fingers around and firmly grasped the nearest bottle to his, brushing my hand with his as I did so...ooops..he jumped like a frightened rabbit, dropped the bottle and legged it !! Disappointed I looked down at what I was left with....and was intrigued.

These little bottles are 'cute', 250ml plastic, like dinky little milk bottles, with a very plain white label with the word 'Innocent' in black lettering under a sort of face with a 'Halo' above it...obviously depicting something angelic..errr one would say 'Innocent' looking. There is a cute 'promise' printed on the side..." We promise that anything innocent will always taste good and do you good. We promise that we will never use concentrates, preservatives, stabilisers, or any weird stuff in our drinks. And if we do you can tell our mums." So do they live up to their promise ?.....

~The Taste Test~

Just twist the top, invert over mouth and...let the flavour flow. Wow, it really is a wonderful taste sensation ! Thick, almost syrupy in texture, rather like thick orange juice with the bits (mine was Mangoes and Passion fruit). The taste is strong and the Mango is predominant, it is tangy with a slight banana like after taste and very, very juicy and refreshing..mmmmmm...best drunk cold I think. The smell is hard to describe..just very, very fruity, though to be honest I am not sure what passion fruit smells like it actually smelt more orangey, but I could smell the mango.

~Ingredients~

Now I know you don't really want all the ingredients but I am going to give them because this will give an idea of just how pure and good for you this drink really is :

In one 250ml bottle there is
2 1/2 pressed apples
1/2 a crushed mango
1/2 a freshly squeezed orange
1/2 a mashed banana
1 crushed passion fruit

And ABSOLUTELY nothing else !! Apparently no matter what the flavour, they always use the following : apples, for natural sweetness, oranges for natural sharpness and bananas to give the thickness and add whatever fruit they need to make the eventual flavour chosen.So there is a lot of 'natural' sugars, which means it is not a good idea to give the hyper active child too many of these.

They do reccommend diluting them slightly with a little water if you are giving them to the under fives. And fruit juice should really be limited to mealtimes only for children of all ages.

~Other Stuff~

All innocent drinks are GM free, contain no nuts, and the smoothies are suitable for vegans and pregnant women. The little plastic bottles are made from 25% recycled plastic and are themselves recyclable. This will make my Son very happy as he has been doing a project at school and is constantly badgering me to buy recyclable packaged goods...

no bad thing I say.

Each bottle of smoothie provides the daily fruit requirement and if you also have 2 portions of vegetables (not recommended to be taken WITH the smoothie) this would meet the 5 portions a day guidelines.

~Storage and Longevity~

They recommend once opened you store in the fridge and use within 2 days once opened. unopened you may store them for about a week (this I am assuming as I bought mine a week before the use by date). To be honest these are so lovely that once you have opened one you will have to drink it all in one...oh and also as it's only 250 ml of course.

~Availability and Flavours~

They are available from most supermarkets and some health stores, you can also pick them up in your local Starbucks.

There are a variety of different flavours:
Mangoes and Passion Fruit
Cranberry and Raspberry
Strawberries and Bananas
Blackberries and Blueberries
Orange, Banana and Pineapple
Pineapple, Banana and coconut

They also produce Thick smoothies (dairy based).

OK, now on to the cost.....at £1.64, for a 250ml bottle, these are not cheap, however when you weigh up the cost of the individual fruit that you have to buy (and I have done the Math), then I found that it worked out at only 23p cheaper to make your own !!! It works out even better if you buy their 1 litre cartons (approx £2.25). Personally I am quite happy to pay that little extra more for a tasty healthy nutritious treat without all the hard work and messiness !

Overall in my opinion, these are truly delicious, refreshing, healthy and ....best of all.....my cat hates them...Hee Hee, you cannot normally leave anything lying around open because he will always come along and sample it, so I can have it all to myself..Yummy !!

Another tip I have found is that they are good for a hangover cure...Yes, honest...well it works for me anyway after a night out with a couple of bottles of chardonnay, a bottle of delicious innocent smoothie down my gullet sorts me out a treat.

So give yourself a treat today (hangover or not), it is rare these days to find something so scrummy and yet so healthy, innocent and ..err... Guilt free !

For more information contact:

Fruit Towers
3 Goldhawk Estate
London W6 0BA

Tel: The Banana Line 02 086 3993

www.innocentdrinks.co.uk