Produced in the Netherlands this Nina’s Savse rather oddly flavoured smoothie had encouraging messages on the label of the bottle such as “two of your five a day”, “Cleansing”, and “Crammed full of goodness”. The ingredients in the 250ml bottle were a blend of crushed vegetables and fruit juices, all unpasteurised to preserve their vitamins, and having no added sugar. Refreshingly the ingredients were measured out to show that there was no added bits and bobs, and these were 150ml pear juice, 80ml broccoli, 5ml kiwi, 5ml lemon, 5ml banana (bluurgh!), 4ml kale, and 1ml spinach. From reading the ingredients I immediately became concerned at the mention of banana. In my taste preferences even 5ml of banana could easily ruin the taste of any smoothie. Per 100ml of this smoothie there were 33 calories, with 5.9g of sugar, and 0g of fat. I gave it a shake; the drink really looked like a lean green mean cleansing machine. On opening the bottle I could smell banana amongst the other ingredients like pear, broccoli and kiwi. The consistency of this green smoothie was a little bit like trying to drink a cold soup, which Cinabar reminded me, was called gazpacho. The smoothie had a certain earthiness and bitty texture. Apart from a hint of banana all the flavours mixed well. There was sweetness from the pear, but at the back of the mouth I could still taste the banana. I could taste the pear, the kiwi, and kale with an earthiness from the broccoli and a touch of lemon. Asides the hints of banana this smoothie actually tasted really nice. I was surprised as putting broccoli in any meal or drink generally frightens the hardiest of vegetable loving folk. Now if Nina had added sprouts that would have been a different story altogether... you wouldn’t have seen me for dust!
By Spectre