Review: Chiquita Smoothies

I may have mentioned here once or twice before that I am not a big fan of fruit. I wish I were – it would be so much easier to eat healthier if I just could eat fruit, but haven’t really been able to find very many good options that I truly enjoy. Thankfully two of my girls are fruit-lovers – but my picky middle daughter isn’t. So I’m always all over any fun way to help both of us eat more fruit – and anything that helps us to actually enjoy it is a huge plus. That’s where options like Chiquita Smoothies come in.

What they are:

Chiquita Smoothies are a frozen drink mix that you mix with crushed ice and water to create a smooth, cold treat that’s full of natural fruit goodness, antioxidants, and Vitamin C. They  come in four flavors – Peach Mango, Mixed Berry, Banana Colada, and Strawberry Banana. You can also add other fruits, juices, yogurt or other ingredients as well, to create your own unique recipes. Each 12-oz can makes three eight-ounce smoothies.

Courtesy of Chiquita, we received an Oster blender and samples of the Chiquita smoothie mixes to try out and review. We also received a package of plastic cups, spoons and napkins to enjoy our smoothies with.

Here’s my our take on them:

I’ve had smoothies before, and although I’ve liked them, I really hadn’t found any that I loved enough to make on a regular basis. Like I’ve said, I’m very picky when it comes to fruit flavors – and I tend to prefer them mixed together rather than separately. So I was very curious to see what I (and my family) would think of these.

Armed with a can of Strawberry Banana smoothie mix, the new blender, ice and water, I followed the directions on the can and easily mixed up a batch. The can of smoothie mix was very easy to open, and the mix itself is about the consistency of the frozen orange juice mix you find in the freezer aisle.

Wow, does that blender work well – even with the large ice cubes our refrigerator’s icemaker creates. In just moments I was able to pour out our smoothies into the cute little cups, add the little spoons and serve our healthy treat to my husband and girls.

The consensus was that although I liked this flavor, it was a bit strong for my taste. Both of my older girls said that they liked it, but didn’t finish their cups. My husband took a quick taste and pronounced it ‘good’ (high praise from him) – but my 3-year-old sat at the table and spooned or drank down every last drop. Then asked for more. 

A week or two later, I had the opportunity to make smoothies again, when we had company over for the weekend. My friend and her two kids (ages 6 years and 18 months) wanted to try them, so we decided to mix up the Peach Mango flavor this time. The kids all liked this variety much better, as did I. In fact, I had two servings that day. It’s just the right amount of fruit flavor – and the texture is very smooth, which is definitely a plus for me since one of my biggest problems with eating fruit is that I hate the texture. I like the smoothies fairly thick, but if you want them to be more drinkable, you could blend it longer, or add a little more water (or juice, or milk) to it afterward.

The best reaction to these smoothies, by far, was from my friend’s little toddler. She had added a bit of milk to his smoothie, to make it easier to drink (he’s not exactly good with a spoon yet), and we put it into a plastic cup with lid and straw for him.

Not only did he like the smoothie – but he absolutely refused to let his mom take the cup away from him afterward! He wanted to get every last drop and was very adamant about it. You can see exactly how much he wanted to keep drinking his smoothie here:

That was just way too cute.

The only flavor that we haven’t tried yet is the Banana Colada – nobody seems terribly interested in that one. I know that we’ll probably keep buying the Peach Mango (my favorite by far) and probably the Mixed Berry as well, since the girls really liked that one too.

The bottom line:

Chiquita Smoothies are a tasty, cold snack on a hot day, or even just a quick, healthy alternative to sugar-laden frozen treats. My girls have been asking for them on a regular basis this summer – and really, the only reason I don’t make them more often than I have is that each can makes A LOT of smoothies. I’m not sure if there’s a good way to save the leftovers to use again, but I’ve been trying to only make them when we either have company over or all of us are home to enjoy them, since I hate wasting any. I also would recommend having a good-quality blender that can crush the ice – or if you have an icemaker that can crush it, that might be a good way to start too.

Where can you find them?:

You can find the four varieties of Chiquita Smoothies in the freezer section of your local grocery or other retail store that sells frozen drink mixes.

This post courtesy of: Chiquita. No payment or compensation, other than product samples as described above, was received for this post.