Most menu items have a distinct role: main dish, side, snack, dessert, beverage. While some crossover may be possible, not many items can claim to be all things to all people. Enter the smoothie, whose versatility enables it to be consumed any time of day and as any component of the meal.
When New Orleans-based Smoothie King opened its first store in 1973, smoothies didn't have much appeal, said Richard Leveille, executive vice president of development and real estate. In fact, most people assumed a smoothie was some type of ice-cream shake. How times have changed.
Made-to-order smoothies are a big business in the United States, raking in more than $2 billion each year, according to Chicago-based Mintel International, a global consumer, product and market research firm. And its popularity continues to grow. The segment increased 13 percent in the last year, according to Jamba Juice data, and some players are growing even faster — Jamba Juice posted 18 percent for the same period.
Operators considering adding smoothies should know there are benefits.
"The dollar value of a smoothie far outweighs a traditional drink," said Eric Spitz, president and co-CEO of KnowFat! Lifestyle Grill. "And many smoothies are sold during off-peak hours, helping to smooth out — pun intended — sales."
Drink to your health
Two major trends are driving the spike in smoothie popularity: the push to eat more fruit and the overall desire for health and wellness.
With nutritionists encouraging Americans to eat five servings or more of fruits and vegetables each day, a smoothie is an easy, tasty way for someone to fulfill the fruit requirement, says Brian Lee, vice president of product innovation at Jamba Juice.
Though it's hard to nail down their demographics, smoothie customers typically are more active and share a desire to improve their health, says Paul Coletta, senior vice president of marketing and brand development at Jamba Juice.
"Psychographically, it's about consumers who are wanting to do more for themselves from a health and wellness perspective," he said. The average Jamba consumer visits 1.6 times a month, with the most frequent users visiting eight to 12 times a month.
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Many smoothies pack a powerful punch of antioxidants and vitamins. Jamba Juice's Acai Super-Antioxidant smoothie includes acai, a Brazilian berry with the highest known concentration of antioxidants. And Smoothie King's Immune Builder boasts 1,500 percent of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin C and 500 percent of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin E.
"We have thousands of people who get this drink because they say if they drink one of these three, four times a week, they don't get a cold or they don't get common illnesses because their immune system is so built up," Leveille said.
Because of its high level of antioxidants and link to heart health, pomegranate is another popular ingredient in smoothies. Coletta said Pomegranate Paradise — an all-fruit product with no added sugar or dairy — was Jamba Juice's success story of 2007, and was followed up with the Pomegranate Heart Defender, which features cholesterol-blocking plant sterols.
In addition to its health benefits, the pomegranate, which has a tart flavor profile, marks a shifting trend in consumer taste.
"Consumers are migrating away from very, very sweet products to products that are more tart or tangy or sweet-sour," Coletta said.
Morning, noon or night
One of the challenges for the smoothie industry has been finding a way to make the product more filling or satiating. By adding ingredients such as grains and nuts into the blender, smoothies can become a meal replacement, serving as a complete and balanced breakfast, lunch or dinner.
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On Feb. 28, Jamba Juice launched Granola Toppers — smoothies with fruit, low-fat yogurt and soy milk, topped with organic granola — and the Chunky Strawberry — strawberries, bananas, creamy peanut butter, nonfat yogurt, soy milk and organic granola blended and topped with fresh bananas. Based on anecdotal evidence in the stores, the "chunky" is a wow product, Coletta said.
"We believe it's the next big idea in healthy living," he said.
While many people look at the smoothie as just another side item or beverage, Leveille said the item deserves a more prominent position.
"We think the smoothie fits right in the center of the plate, instead of fried chicken, instead of a sub sandwich, instead of a hamburger or a hot dog," he said.
But it still can fill that role of dessert or between-meal snack. "You get that low blood sugar at 3 in the afternoon, where people will grab the Snickers bar and the Diet Coke," Leveille said. "The smoothies do very well in that niche."
Another popular use is as a performance enhancer. Spitz said the typical consumer of the chain's Prolatta either is dieting, eating multiple small meals or working out heavily and needs to augment their diet with protein. And Smoothie King's high-protein smoothies includes 40 ounces of protein in a 20-ounce serving.
Future flavors
Springboarding off the excitement created by pomegranate, blueberries and acai, several other superfruits are poised to make a splash. Fruits such as mangosteen, goji berry and prickly pear currently are in the test kitchens at Jamba Juice.
And, perhaps even more surprisingly, more vegetables soon may enter the mix. Jamba Juice offers carrot juice, but is looking at adding others. Cucumbers, for example, could lie on the horizon.
"Mixing fruit and vegetable in a smoothie, which may not sound like it works, is definitely a trend," Coletta said. "Bringing vegetables into the blender with fruits, mixing those up, is really not only healthy, but it tastes great."
But Leveille urged operators to maintain the integrity of the industry.
"It's important to sell a real product, not an artificial product, not a machine-made, dispensed product made from some kind of gooey concentrate," he said.
While creating an inviting atmosphere and a rewarding customer experience also are important, Lee reinforced that what goes into a smoothie must be the top consideration.
"At the end of the day, the product you hand off to the customer and the quality of the ingredients that go into that are what's paramount," he said.
