Starbucks is offering new Evolution Fresh Smoothies in a number of their stores in San Diego and Baltimore. I haven’t tried one yet, but I am definitely curious about it. The new Evolution Fresh Smoothies are far from a secret – there already is an official Starbucks blog article on these new “pure and simple” Evolution Fresh Smoothie beverages:
- From Starbucks.com – It’s Pure & Simple – Evolution Fresh Smoothies are Now Available in San Diego and Baltimore
I’ve been trying to gather information on these new smoothies. So far, from what I’ve learned from emails, tweets, and Facebook, these test smoothies were launched in early September this year, and scheduled to end towards the end of November. All of the new smoothies are made with a juice base, Greek yogurt, and fresh fruit. All of the smoothies are under 250 calories. The three standard test smoothies are as follows:
- Strawberry – Banana
- Greens – Banana & Pineapple
- Mango – Pineapple
And, when you order these drinks (non-customized) here is what they look like:
This isn’t the first time that Starbucks has experimented with new smoothies. My gut instinct is that, for at least a while now, Starbucks has sort of felt that the smoothies were due for a “refresh.” That’s hard to explain, but the current smoothies haven’t been through any dramatic recipe changes since their introduction in 2008. And for those of you that remember, the current smoothies were introduced as the Vivanno Nourishing Blend, on July 15, 2008. In May of 2012, Starbucks tested a Mango – Passionfruit Smoothie, which never made it out of a very small test phase.
As everyone knows, Starbucks thrives on customization! The partner who assisted me with this article commented that he noticed that some popular customizations to these new test Pure & Simple Evolution Fresh Smoothies:
From left to right, what you’re looking at are these popular customizations: 1) A Strawberry – Pineapple Smoothie 2) Mango – Strawberry and 3) Strawberry, with extra strawberry scoops.
I’m told that these smoothies are doing well, and that both customers and baristas alike are enjoying having them as a beverage option. Personally, I think it’s a great idea to leverage the Evolution Fresh brand into the Starbucks smoothies with better ingredients, and better options. Starbucks recently introduced Evolution Harvest snacks by Evolution Fresh into their stores. The person who emailed me the photos said that when you pick up the cup and look at your smoothie, you can see real fruit pieces in it.
The price of these new smoothies is $5.95.
As I mentioned, I haven’t tried these. But it’s possible that I have some readers in San Diego or Baltimore who are familiar with these. Feel free to weigh in. Are you up for a big change in your Starbucks smoothies?
32 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
I am so excited for the continued integration of Evolution Fresh (and Teavana!) into the stores. We have a lot of amazing material to work with with our latest acquisitions.
Dylan – Well said! Totally agree!
I kind of expected this-with the integration of Evolution Fresh. It makes sense with their great focus on high quality, fresh fruit juices that Starbucks would look at incorporating these ingredients into the smoothies. I enjoy the current smoothies very much but I really like the evolution fresh juices better–I look forward to seeing this come to fruition hopefully! The Evolution Fresh smoothies that you can buy at their stores are AMAZING!
Okay Chris, love your play on words! I’ll cross my fingers that these come to fruition.
I think this is really exciting. I am very in favor of having healthier options. As I am getting older I know I need to make better nutrition choices and I have to believe that many of our customers feel the same. If you look at pictures of Howard Schultz through the years he appears to be in better shape at 60 than he was at 40. Clearly health and wellness are near and dear to his heart and it’s nice to see him really steer the company to be a player in the space. Plus, from the business side of things I am very in favor of new products that will drive traffic in multiple day parts.
Is it safe to say that the EV Fresh Smoothies are made without protein powder? If I am being honest I do not enjoy the taste and texture (i.e., mouthfeel) of our protein powder. If the new smoothies are made without protein powder then my excitement will double.
Yum!!! I love all things mango and pineapple, the greens sound good too!
These sound yummy! Especially the mango pineapple one. I really hope they roll out nationwide! I wonder how the evolution harvest snacks are selling. I’ve yet to try ’em.
4+ years ago, I had bariatric surgery. As a result, protein has been the name of my food game ever since. Another patient turned me on to the Vivanno, which I loved, and which–though the name changed–has remained a staple of my diet across this time (my customization: non-fat, minus mocha, add one scoop vanilla bean. YUMMO!).
So it was with immense sadness that I learned that Baltimore would be a test market for the new smoothies. I’m 100% down for the fresh fruit (in fact, if you want something double yummo, do my “old” smoothie customization with blueberries instead of a banana!), but juice–even Evolution juice–is still just juice, one scoop of greek yogurt does nothing special nutritionally, and having tried the Evolution smoothies, I can say they don’t meet any of my needs or wants. That’s especially true for the greens smoothie. Feh. And I *like* greens in smoothies, but this just wasn’t good (IMO).
The best thing of all? One block away from my neighborhood Starbucks is a new Starbucks in Target, and they still do the old smoothies. It’s like I’ve been reborn in some utterly twisted sense.
What *I* wish they would do is keep the Evolution smoothies if it turns out that lots of people love them, *and* keep carrying protein powder to make the others. They have the other ingredients on hand all the time anyway, so the only thing they’d have to have that they wouldn’t if they continue Evolution is the protein powder. Seems a small thing to get to make some folks happy (because I can’t believe I’m the only one who loves them.
On another note, every time I get into a conversation with a partner (which is frequent, as I also love coffee), I’ve asked about the new smoothes. To a person, every one has said that the “stuff” to make them takes up too much space, and that they are a huge pain to make, in part, because they have to haul everything out of the fridge (rather than just using what they have for other drinks and squeezing in a banana), then put it all back.
I guess we’ll see what happens….
Thanks for writing this blog. Love it 🙂
A
Baltimore report: green-banana-pineapple is delicious. A perfect balance between the flavors. Very refreshing. I also liked that the calories were included on the drive-through menu.
I hope they expand these smoothies to my area. I think it would be a great addition to the menu. How much sugar if any is in it? From what I am reading, all natural?
Hi Purple1 – I don’t know the nutrition info on the new smoothies. I am assuming that they’re all natural – though for a smoothie, that wouldn’t be hard to do. I would assume that they have no added sugars?
@Emily – Glad to hear you reporting in! Maybe I have to take a trip to San Diego soon!
@Anastacia – If Starbucks ever does launch these new smoothies nationwide, I have no doubt that the protein powder will be missed by many – I have heard it said that Starbucks used a very high quality protein powder. And let me just say, thank you for the great comment, and finding this blog and reading it. Hope you will subscribe. (There is a place to put your email address is the right side column of the blog).
@Organic FT Dave & @Becca & Audrey – Thank you for the comments!
Thank you so much for the quick information. I am so lucky to have found you Melody. Because I get to know all the top almost secret that I wasn’t inform by anyone yet from my SM or even the DM. Thank you so much.
The Green-Banana-Pineapple is my favorite, sometimes I sub strawberries for the banana if they looks too green and it’s still amazing. Make sure to try a smoothie before getting into the afternoon because in the evening we run out of the ingredients because they are so popular…even at $5.95.
Plus we still get request for the original smoothies with protein powder and we can still make those too. 🙂
Kristian – Ah you weighed in on some topics that I had been thinking about. The price is $5.95 before tax? That sounds about right for a smoothie. Can a customer use a free “Lucky Dozen” reward on the new smoothies? And I was going to ask if you were still able to make the old version of the smoothies. Though I assume, at some point, it will be one or the other.
As of the launch a couple of weeks ago we weren’t able to use the reward but that seemed to be a glitch in the system. I did however still redeem the reward to the customer I just used the original smoothie to redeem their star but still made the Evo…but don’t tell anyone. 😉 lol
@Kristian – You are awesome! I have heard and seen that happen before – New products still have some programming to go in the registers. On the other side of “glitches” – You are not supposed to be able to use a reward on any “evenings” foods, but it will definitely let you redeem a reward on the “Evenings” flatbreads (goat cheese & artichoke, or the tomato & chicken one) which are soooo good!
I’m a barista in San Diego and I have mixed feelings about the new smoothies. I’m not a big smoothie person but they have grown on me. I think my favorite right now is the mango pineapple one (btw they don’t have protein powder in them, the Greek yogurt has the protein in it). The other two are good too but the Green one is a bit watery. I love the use of fresh fruit to make a delicious drink. I knew the smoothies were test drinks but I didn’t know that they were ONLY in two cities. I feel special lol.
The thing I absolutely HATE about these smoothies is actually making them. They are a pain in the butt to make. I don’t mind making it when we don’t have many customers, but when we are busy I don’t want to make a smoothie!!! Having to take all of the ingredients out the fridge and do all the measuring takes too long. There’s just too many ingredients. I’m kind of glad it’s $6 so customers don’t buy it too often.
Not going to lie — I’m really excited about these! I come from a store that makes 15-20 smoothies a day (my fellow baristas will understand how huge this is..). They’re great as is, but there is such an opportunity for improvement!
Until these launch nationwide you can recommend an Evolution Fresh juice blended with a venti scoop of ice — it makes for a fantastic “quick” smoothie!
I tried the green-pineapple- banana smoothie today. It was pretty good, but not better than my usual strawberry banana with protein powder. I was also surprised that the new Evolution smoothies were significantly more expensive than the existing smoothies. $5.95 is pretty steep considering the size of the cup.
I am a HUGE consumer of the original Vivanno strawberry-banana smoothie, and hope that Starbucks will offer BOTH Vivanno and Evolution in the future.
PS – good to know that we can customize smoothies by swapping ingredients. Never knew that, so thanks!
I work at a licensed Target store and we are starting a launch on these smoothies on the 31st! There are 3 flavors .. strawberry, sweet greens, and mango carrot. All smoothies start with a fruit/veggie base and get a dollop of Greek yoghurt, 2 light shakes of nutmeg and a smoothie sized scoop of ice. That is all that there is to them. You can add protein, more yogurt, blueberries, or bananas to the smoothies but where I am from they are starting at $6.95! Only available in grande size.
Forgot to add, these smoothies currently will only be available at licensed Target stores. The bases are all cold pressed, and vivanno smoothies will be going bye bye
@Kristen – The new smoothies are going to a PNW item starting the 31st! All stores in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and I think most of Idaho get them. I have my article written – just waiting for the 31st to publish it. 🙂 Don’t you just love the new smoothies? I will be using my rewards on them!
These don’t have nearly as much protein as the old Starbucks smoothies that they are replacing. That was the whole reason why I used to get those!
Bye bye Starbucks, I won’t be coming back!
@TheManFromTaco – Starbucks stores will still have their protein powder as an add in – You can still get your protein, which mostly came from the protein powder added in. Also, not all areas have the new smoothies. If you’re not in the pacific northwest or Northern California, just visit any company-operated Starbucks and you should still find the old version of the smoothies.
I have tried the Mango carrot smoothie and it’s pretty refreshing but I think they’re expensive and they only come in one size. Why is it so expensive to eat healthier?
Just tried a mango/carrot? smoothie by Evolution. I do not like it’s taste at all – taking me quite awhile to drink – plus the price is ridculous. $5.95 plus tax – Over $6.00 for a drink? I guess I would have said “no” but didn’t realize the price until the worker mentioned it. I would have felt bad to change my order. She said she was not fond of them either. Please bring back the chocolate banana smoothies…….
Please bring back the Vivanno – I guess I can still get them at the non-Target Starbucks – which is great – no more drinks at Target – sorry.
Vivanno’s – I guess I can still get them at the non-Target Starbucks – which is great – no more drinks at Target – sorry.
@Lori Beth –
http://starbucksmelody.com/2015/03/31/new-smoothies-at-starbucks-mango-carrot-strawberry-and-sweet-greens/
You should still be able to order the chocolate smoothie. The stores still have bananas, mocha sauce, protein powder – I think they’ve got all the ingredients. Nothing’s changed! Your store should be able to make it.
I asked the girl for a chocolate smoothie – She said they no longer make them – here in Fond du Lac, WI ):
@LoriBeth – I would call Customer Service and complain. You should be able to get a chocolate smoothie. The barista said “no” when the right answer is “yes.” – Please call Customer Service.
Thanks, Melody – the girls are so nice there – I’d hate to cause problems but I will call and question the status of the chocolate smoothie. Thank you very much.