The perfect smoothie can be a great and easy way to start your day. For those with tight schedules, nutrition in the morning is not negotiable, so a smoothie might be the best way to go about breakfast.
Just toss some fruits, ice, and almond milk into a blender. Hit the button, and you’re off to a nutritious start to another day.
In the hustle and bustle of working life, however, it is easy to neglect certain aspects of your smoothie, often resulting in a subpar beverage and breakfast replacement. In this article, we’re going to go over the most common smoothie mistakes and how to fix them for better nutrition and flavor.
Smoothies, as their name suggests, are meant to be smooth and creamy in texture. Forgetting to add thickeners can make your blend a little too much like pulpy juice, and can cause the ice to melt far too quickly.
Fruits like mangoes, apricots, and peaches have flesh thick enough to create that thick and creamy texture in smoothies that we love. Chia seeds or soaked flax can also provide the same texture in the right amounts.
Try to find the perfect mix of fruits to reach that sweet spot you favor, instead of adding sugar. Make sure to use unsweetened almond milk if you’re going non-dairy as well. Dates are a good addition if you’re really hankering for something sweet, but if it ends up too sweet, a little lemon or lime juice can cut the sweetness and add more depth.
Using too much ice can cut and dilute the flavor of your smoothie and give it a runny quality after a few minutes.
The added water also makes it more difficult for fruits with good fats, such as coconut oil, flax oil, seeds, and nuts, to blend smoothly with the drink. Make sure to add the ice last so your smoothie can have just the right amount.
You can also use frozen fruit juices instead of ice cubes for added flavor.
A perfect smoothie has no lumps and travels through a straw with relative ease. To achieve that, you have to take your time. Keep your blender on for one to two minutes for the optimum mix. If the consistency still isn’t perfect, keep going until there is a fine flow to the fluids.
It can be harder to tell, especially in tropical fruits, whether the fruit is unripe, ripe, or overripe. It is important to familiarize yourself with the stages in the lifespan of your fruit so you can use that to your advantage and blend with all the right flavors you want.
An unripe mango, for example, is tougher, more fibrous, and incredibly sour. As such, it requires more intensive blending and partnership with sweeter fruits to cut the acidity.
While these tips and tricks to avoiding smoothie mistakes can help you make the best smoothie, at the end of the day, what you put in the blender boils down to your preferences and needs. Be sure to listen to your palate and account for your dietary needs when making your smoothies, and remember to have fun with the whole process.
If you need the perfect and affordable blender for smoothies, we at Cleanblend have just the blender for you. It’s definitely a buy you won’t regret, but we have a 30-day money-back guarantee in case.