How do smoothie places make such bland drinks?

ReallyBigJAWS

Pretty much any place that sells smoothies (at least in my experience,) looking at you too, Jamba, they're barely that flavorful and if you ask for a low cal you're basically asking for an ice-packed slush full of sour and bitterness. The normal ones can easily get 400+ cals. They're essentially putting ice cream in these things, yet still manage to be lacking flavor.

I just made roughly 20oz worth of a smoothie, less than 140 cals, and it is extremely sweet/flavorful. More so than the regular high cal smoothies at the shops. No odd ingredients (though if I wanted could add Stevia to overkill the sweetness) all whole fruit, yogurt and juice.

If I can achieve that with limited ingredients what the hell are the smoothie stores doing/using? If they were half as good as the ones I can make for myself (not to sound bigheaded) they'd be an awesome lowcal food replacement for when I'm out, I'm always reluctant, though, as I haven't found a good one yet.

Am I just hitting up horrible smoothie spots? Most of them are assorted jamba juices through out the state.

peleroja

Most chain smoothie places use frozen yogurt/sorbet or plenty of fruit juice. Both of those things add a ton of calories to a smoothie.I prefer not to drink my calories, in any event, but this is the reason why mass-market type smoothie places have the number of calories they do. Even stuff like bananas can add in a lot of calories in a 24-oz drink.

When I do (rarely) get smoothies, I get them here:

http://www.jugojuice.com/nutritional-info

They're in the 250-350 calorie range mostly, but they do use fruit juices in them. However, I'm under no illusion that what I'm drinking is particularly healthy. They're a convenient quick lunch sometimes though, and the ones with kale/beets/spinach/carrots are at least giving me some micronutrients when I'm not in the mood for a salad.

In summary...it's because juice is full of sugar and chain-store smoothies are full of juice.