what did costco do to their berry smoothie

As many of you lot are already enlightened Costco has recently replaced the Berry Smoothie in their food courts with a new Fruit Smoothie – much to the chagrin of loyal Berry Smoothie fans. This new smoothie is touted every bit having:

• No added carbohydrate
• No artificial flavors or colors
• Four servings of fruit

Simply this and so-called "healthier" smoothie comes at a massive 106% price increase. The beloved Drupe Smoothie toll a mere $1.45, while the new Fruit Smoothie costs $2.99. And according to the nutritional information card, at xv.5 ounces the new Fruit Smoothie is actually .five ounces less than the quondam Berry Smoothie, which was a full xvi ounces.

I know what you're thinking; "Maybe the drastic price increase is worth it for the new 'healthier' smoothie." Well to discover out, I ordered a smoothie and asked a nutrient courtroom employee if I could see the nutritional information. She obliged and rifled through a binder before handing me a laminated card. I asked if I could take a photo considering it would exist faster than writing downwardly all the information and she said certain. The card still had the Berry Smoothie listed right below the new Fruit Smoothie so I was able to capture nutritional data on both smoothies for comparison. Ingredients were not listed, however the allergen column for both smoothies was blank, indicating that both smoothies appear to be free of wheat, milk, egg, fish, soy and anchovy.

I will non be posting the photo I took of the entire nutritional information card because I did non explicitly ask for permission to post that photo I took. Instead I took the information and made a nice little tabular array for easy side by side comparison:

	Berry Smoothie	New Fruit Smoothie*
Serving Size (oz)	16	15.5
Calories	240	220
Calories from Fatty	0	0
Total Fat	0	0
Saturated Fat	0	0
Transfat	0	0
Cholesterol	0	0
Sodium (mg)	25	200
Total Carbohydrate (m)	59	56
Dietary Fiber (g)	ane	4
Sugars (g)	50	47
Protein (thou)	0	i
Total Toll	$1.45	$two.99
Toll Per Ounce	$0.09	$0.nineteen
* no added saccharide, no artificial flavors or colors, 4 servings of fruit

Now let me breakup the comparisons for you:

• Y'all will see that calories decreased past eight%, dropping from 240 calories for the Berry Smoothie, to 220 calories for the new Fruit Smoothie. Merely virtually everyone tin benefit from fewer calories and so let'due south call this one a positive change.

• Both smoothies are fat gratis and cholesterol gratis, and since at that place is no change there is neither a positive nor negative alter.
• Simply what is going on with sodium? The Berry Smoothie had a mere 25mg of sodium, but the new Fruit Smoothie has a whopping 200mg of sodium. Umm that'south an astonishing 700% increment in sodium!! What? The? Heck? For a smoothie that doesn't contain poly peptide pulverisation, nuts or nut butters those sodium levels are rather alarming. That'southward a huge negative change.

• Total carbohydrates decreased by 5%, dropping from 59g that the Drupe Smoothie had, to 56g that the new Fruit Smoothie has. I'll call fewer carbohydrates a positive change.
• Continuing down the list, the Drupe Smoothie had merely 1g of dietary fiber, while the new Fruit Smoothie has 4g of dietary fiber which is a 300% increase in fiber. Dietary fiber has many health benefits so an increase in fiber is a positive alter.

• With the merits of no added saccharide I was hoping to run into a more impressive decrease in the amount of saccharide – only the new Fruit Smoothie has only a measly 3g, (or six%) less sugar than the former Berry Smoothie. The four servings of fruit could explain why the sugar subtract isn't greater -- more fruit does mean more fiber and every piddling chip helps when it comes to decreasing sugar intake then I'll chalk this one up to a positive alter, admitting a tiny one.
  
  
• The last particular on the nutritional chart is poly peptide, which increased 100% from 0g in the Berry Smoothie to 1g in the new Fruit Smoothie. Protein is an important macronutrient that is essential to your diet so increased protein is a positive alter.
  
  
• I had a friend run the nutritional information for both smoothies through a weight watchers computer and the smart points values came to 13 points for the Berry Smoothie and 12 points for the new Fruit Smoothie – which if yous follow weight watchers is another every so slight positive modify.
• Permit me go over that price increase again. The sixteen oz. Drupe Smoothie cost $one.45, or $.09 per ounce and the new fifteen.5 oz. Fruit Smoothie costs $two.99, or $.19 per ounce. Per ounce, the Drupe smoothie was a steal! Especially when compared to the prices of smoothies elsewhere. The Fruit Smoothie on the other hand is just slightly cheaper per ounce when compared to smoothies from other retailers. For example I compared the prices of both Costco smoothies to similar smoothies at Jamba Juice and Tropical Smoothie Café:

• At Jamba Juice, a xvi oz. archetype smoothie costs most $five.25*, or $.33 per ounce. Comparing ounce for ounce the Costco new Fruit Smoothie is 41% less expensive than Jamba Juice, only the Costco Drupe Smoothie was 72% less expensive. So the new Fruit Smoothie is nevertheless an amazing deal compared to a Jamba Juice classic smoothie, but it'south just not quite every bit amazing every bit the Berry Smoothie was.
• At Tropical Smoothie Café a 24 oz. classic smoothie costs about $iv.91**, or $.xx per ounce. From an ounce per ounce perspective the Costco new Fruit Smoothie is only half dozen% cheaper than a classic Tropical Smoothie Café smoothie, but the old Costco Berry Smoothie was a whopping 56% cheaper per ounce.
• Even with that said, overall the 106% price increment from one Costco item to another Costco item is pretty hard to swallow. I'k counting the dramatic price increase equally a big negative change.

• Last but non least, permit'due south talk most taste. I liked the old Berry Smoothie, only I wasn't in love with it. Too often I plant it to be just way too sweet for my liking. The new Fruit Smoothie has a bit of tart gustatory modality to information technology, which I honey because I quite enjoy tangy, sour things. But that's not to say that the new Fruit Smoothie is sour tasting, information technology just has a refreshing tartness. I would describe the new Fruit Smoothie as tasting "real." Much like when you lot enjoy fresh fruit (especially berries or cherries) sometimes yous get a piece that is much sweeter, and sometimes you get a piece that is less sweet and slightly tart. I know taste is subjective, and while I can't quite isolate each and every fruit flavour I sense of taste in the new Fruit Smoothie, I can definitely tell that it is real fruit I am tasting and not artificial fruit flavoring which is a positive for me.

To engagement I have had five of the new Fruit Smoothies from 4 unlike Costco nutrient courts in the Northern Virginia surface area and 1 thing that has become apparent to me is the way the smoothies are made is not consistent. If you accept tried the new Fruit Smoothie y'all may take noticed they are prepared differently. If I call up, the old Berry Smoothies were premixed and only poured right out of the machine into cups ready to savour. The new Fruit Smoothies still are made in a three-stride procedure:

• Add scoop of fruit mixture to cup

• Add frozen concoction to cup

• Blend frozen concoction and fruit mixture until thoroughly combined

At present those are non the official directions, they are but my observations from having seen different nutrient court employees brand half a dozen smoothies over the by few weeks, just I believe the lack of consistency I've noticed comes down to the blending step. Some food courts blend the smoothies better or longer, which results in the fruit mixture and frozen batter being thoroughly combined and quite easy to relish through a straw. But I have experienced two smoothies at different food courts that were non thoroughly blended which resulted in large chunks of fruit getting stuck in my straw and an overall less intense, less uniform flavor. This lack of consistency is a negative change.

If you have been keeping track you know that I came up with 7 positives changes and iii negative changes, which makes my pseudo scientific comparison a win for the new Fruit Smoothie. (At to the lowest degree IMHO.)

Let me know if you accept tried the new Fruit Smoothie and what yous recollect!

Cheers for reading ☺

the Costco Connoisseur

#GoingToAllTheCostcos

thackertimentep.blogspot.com

Source: https://costcoconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2017/07/costco-berry-smoothie-v-new-fruit.html

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