Island Green Smoothie

One of my self-proclaimed talents is making delicious smoothies and frozen cocktails...meaning, I know how to operate a blender. No really, there is a little more skill involved than just throwing a bunch of stuff in a blender and pressing"start", that is, if you actually want it to taste good. I worked at Tropical Smoothie for a year in college and then for two more summers once I started teaching. I absolutely love Tropical Smoothie so it's a good thing that I know all the secrets and have the skills so that I can make it in my own kitchen. If you want to know how to make anything on the Tropical Smoothie menu, I can teach you how to do it. However, there are some newer items on the menu that have come out since I was working there that require a little more effort on my part to figure out how to make them taste just like the real thing.

Since I have recently been trying out this kale fad, I decided to try Tropical Smoothie's new Island Green smoothie. I wanted to drink one from the actual restaurant before I tried to make it at home so that I knew what it was supposed to taste like. I was actually surprised by how delicious it was. I was expecting it to taste like it had leafy greens in it, but it doesn't. I think the strongest flavors of the smoothie are the banana and mango, which is good because it doesn't seem as though you are drinking leaves except for the fact that the smoothie does turn out green.  

To make this smoothie at home, you will need banana, mango, pineapple, kale and spinach. Now, you have some options here for your ingredients. Obviously, you need to get your banana, kale and spinach from the produce section. However, you can use either fresh or frozen for the mango and pineapple. If you are really into the "all fresh" style, then you can get all your ingredients from the produce section. On the other hand, Dole makes bags of mango and pineapple chunks in the freezer section. I decided to use frozen mango and pineapple for a number of reasons. Number one, it will last longer if I don't use it all right away. Number two, it is all ready to go into the blender. I didn't want to have to peel or seed any fruits. Number three, it will keep your smoothie thicker and less juice-like because it is already frozen. Whether your preference is fresh or frozen, it will taste the same so no worries.

You also have the option of putting sugar or sweetener in this smoothie. Tropical Smoothie uses a special sugar called turbinado in all of their smoothies, which is why they taste so good. When you order one of their smoothies, you can request to have that sugar substituted with Splenda or request no sugar at all. I will warn you that this does alter the taste of the smoothie and some smoothies really do need a little sugar in them to remove the tart from the fruit (example: raspberries). However, I think that this Island Green smoothie tastes just fine without sugar. I made mine at home with no sugar or sweetener.

I also did not use any ice when making this smoothie. Using the frozen pineapple and mango allowed me to get the smoothie-like texture without adding any ice. If you use all fresh ingredients, you might need to add some crushed ice or else yours might end up more like a juice than a smoothie. Go ahead and blend up all the ingredients and if it looks too liquid-y for your liking, then just add some ice.

I don't use specific measurements when making my smoothies, but here is a rough estimate. This smoothie calls for 1 banana, and about a handful of everything else (pineapple, mango, kale and spinach), which equates out to about 1/2 cup of each ingredient. I highly recommend that you chop all the ingredients up into smaller pieces before you put them into your blender. The blenders at Tropical Smoothie are professional grade and about $1200; therefore, you can put whole pieces of fruit into those blenders no problem. However, unless you have a $1200 blender at your house go ahead and chop everything up to help your blender out. Once you put all the ingredients in the blender, add a splash of water as well.

If you notice while your blender is going that it doesn't seem to be blending well, there might be an air bubble at the bottom causing it to stall in mixing. Stop the blender, then take a utensil and stir around in the blender mixing the ingredients up. Keep doing this until your smoothie is well blended. Do not stick a utensil in your blender while it is running! I do not want to be responsible for anyone having to go to the emergency room or broken blenders. When you see that your smoothie is getting a smooth, well defined funnel in the middle, then you are all done!    

Enjoy your smoothie!