Smoothies! The Original Smoothie Books (vol. 1 and 2)

These books are winning the “biggest disappointment” contest for 2005—I found very little of redeeming value in Smoothies! The Original Smoothie Books.  I ordered the two-volume set because Flippy and I have recently become smitten with our local Smoothie King, and are spending far too much money there, so I thought these books would help me make tasty smoothies at home (in my poor, beleaguered blender).  The books promise “professionally developed” recipes from such large chains as Smoothie King, Jamba Juice, Juice Zone, etc., so I mistakenly assumed I’d actually be getting a recipe or two of smoothie blends you can buy at these establishments.  Alas, all you get in the book is literally what is promised, “professionally-developed” recipes—recipes which don’t seem to have been good enough to make it into the regular rotation at smoothie outlets.  There’s an “apple smoothie” recipe from Smoothie King—blah.  Could they really not have parted with one signature recipe, like “Light and Fluffy”?  “Light and Fluffy” certainly isn’t the brain surgery of smoothie recipes - I think it’s just strawberries, bananas, and orange juice—but it would have been a nice gesture and would have made me feel like I was being taught the secret to a “real smoothie”.

My other big beef about these books is redundancy.  Volume one features a history of the smoothie industry, a list of potential ingredients, a glossery, a guide to techniques, and a list of online resources, and Volume two features all the identical information!  As this information comprises 75% of the pages of both books, you’re only getting 25% of new material in the second volume.  What a waste of paper!  It’s not even good redundant material, either—the online resources section features links to shareware programs about dieting, for example.  If I wanted to know about shareware, I’d buy a book about shareware.  It seems like a really obvious effort to fill up pages and to make a “second volume”, when they should have just reprinted the first volume and raised the price to account for the extra recipes.

So, I’m still looking for a good smoothie recipe book.  If I find one that I really like, I’ll be sure to write about it.  In the meantime, I’ll keep buying pre-made smoothie mixes that I can doctor with my own fresh fruit.  I also really love Big Train’s Fruit Tea Blast—the Peach Pizazz flavour is delicious!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/20 at 03:53 AM

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