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Nectar Smoothies…a little too sweet?
Josh Guttman | July 24, 2008
I walked over to Nectar on Court Street today and ordered a smoothie - The Hometown Squeeze in this case - as I do once or twice every week. I’ve always assumed this to be a healthy breakfast or snack, made only with natural ingredients and fruits. The menu says The Hometown Squeeze contains “peach, blueberries and banana”. When the man preparing my smoothie grabbed a plastic juice bottle from the shelf, I was confused so asked to see the bottle. It turns out the Peach Nectar that they were using instead of actual peaches, wasn’t even pure juice. The bottle listed high fructose corn syrup among its ingredients and also claimed “contains 32% real juice”. Needless to say, drinking my smoothie took on a very different experience this morning. Why is Nectar using artificial and unhealthy ingredients in their smoothies? How do people feel about this?
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4 Comments so far
I totally agree with you on the sweetness factor. It’s how they keep their cost down. It is the cheapest juice joint on the block (if you get a pre-made organic juice at Jill’s down the block, it’ll cost you close to $10), but it is certainly not the healthiest. It’s one of the reasons I ask them to never add “juice” to a smoothie, I always ask for soymilk instead. At least this option cuts on the sugar somewhat. I’d buy more juices/smoothies there if they were to go organic. But if you’re really concerned about the health pros & cons about getting a smoothie in the neighborhood, I would stick with Jill’s. More nutritional bang for your buck (even though you’ll spend more bucks).
this is like the seinfeld episode where the gang questionned the low or no calorie soft serve yogurt.
try smoothies at park natural, down court st.
My wife and I have patronized Nectar for a few years now and were ready to say goodbye after reading this post. But we talked to Jeff, the owner, and while it is true that the peach nectar mentioned contained high-fructose corn syrup the brand used was actually a temporary replacement for a standby brand that had suffered a hiatus in distribution. Also the Hometown Squeeze is one of only two smoothies that use an added juice and solely for the purposes of actually blending the fruit, as some fruits can bog down the blender a bit more. Also while we were there Jeff trashed the last carton of peach nectar and vowed to switch to apple juice for that particular smoothie. No doubt it is possible to get a higher quality smoothie (Liquiteria for instance), but the real draw of Nectar is in the cost-benefit analysis. For the price you pay the quality is very high and tasty to boot. Jill’s is also very good, but they only have two smoothies and the two establishments have quite different food offerings. Nectar remains a very good neighborhood joint that we will continue to frequent.