My terrible photos of a delicious beverage.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe's newest offering for spring: The Avocolada Smoothie ($4.99), a ridiculously creamy frozen smoothie that does, in fact, taste a lot like a pina colada. The primary ingredients are avocado, pineapple, spinach, kale, coconut and lime, which means it's packed with nutrients (108 percent of your daily vitamin A, 127 percent of your vitamin C, some calcium, iron and fiber), but it also tastes pretty damn decadent without being cloyingly sweet.
Unfortunately (fortunately?), I checked the nutritional info on Tropical Smoothie Cafe's website after I finished my Avocolada, because had I known the thing contains 592 calories and 22 grams of fat (but it's good fat, from avocados and coconut!) and 87 grams of sugar (ouch) before ordering, I probably would have stuck with a salad or added a scoop of whey protein or oats to my smoothie (99 cents extra) and made it a more complete meal.
One gripe: Why can't you make these things in smaller sizes, Tropical Smoothie Cafe? Your enormous 24-ounce smoothies are delicious and satisfying, but they're entirely too large for the average person. Give us a 12-ounce option and we'd visit more often.
Of course, you don't have to go to Tropical Smoothie Cafe to get an avocolada – there are plenty of recipes out there, so you can always make your own. If you do, chances are, you'll probably opt for a much more reasonable serving size. Here's a recipe from Raw Food, Real World: 100 recipes to get the glow by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis:
1 ripe avocado
3 cups of diced pineapple
2 cups of coconut water (from a Young Thai Coconut – available at most Asian Supermarkets – here is a video on how to open one!)
3 T agave nectar or 2 packets of stevia
3 T of lime juice
1 T of coconut butter or oil (available from most health food stores or organic supermarkets)
2 tsp of vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Mix everything up in a blender, pour into a glass and drink it up. This recipe makes two to three servings.
Here's Kenney's photo of what his avocolada looks like – his photo makes it look way more appetizing than mine.
