A Smoothie That Tastes Unhealthy But Isn't: What's the Secret?

By Catherine Downes Tue., May 24 2011 at 2:26 PM

Categories: Off the Menu

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The folks at Jamba Juice have a gimmick up their sleeves. While the smoothie bar is known for its fruit and veggie smoothies, freshly squeezed juices and healthy snack options plastered across their colorful menu boards, turns out the California-based chain has a not-so-secret, secret menu. All one has to do Google "Jamba Juice" and "secret menu" to discover stacks of sites devoted to and mentioning the shop's lengthy lists of drinks including Lemonade Lightning, Apple Pie, Fruity Pebbles, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Pink Starburst -- the list goes on and on.

At City of Ate, we were intrigued by the prospect of ordering unhealthy-tasting, healthy smoothies. It seemed too good to be true. When we asked the guy behind the counter about the menu, he nodded without hesitation and rattled off a list so long we could barely keep up with the names. We ordered the Strawberry Shortcake smoothie, made with pineapple juice, soy milk, frozen yogurt, strawberries, and pineapple sherbet. We also asked him to make us his favorite off-menu smoothie, he whipped up a Sour Patch Kids smoothie, with lime sherbet, orange sherbet, raspberry sherbet, pineapple sherbet and blueberries. While neither was an exact flavor replica of what it was supposed to taste like, with a little help from our imaginations we could taste strawberry shortcake and Sour Patch Kids.

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