NEW! Gorgeous Greens Innocent Smoothie (Boots)

As a child, teenager, and indeed up until my mid-twenties, I had a severe aversion to anything vegetable. I never fell foul of the carrot infused chips (posing as fries) that my mother cooked me, and even managed to separate the peas out of my egg fried rice. Monster child! Now, I love the stuff, but I'm still not convinced by fruit and vegetable combinations (except for carrot cake of course). It doesn't help that my last venture into fruit-vegetable medleys ended badly -remember my review of Tesco's vegetable greek style yogurts? Bleurgh. 

It's safe to assume therefore, that I probably wouldn't have bought Innocent's new 'Gorgeous Greens' smoothie if it wasn't for my blog related affinity towards anything labelled as new. Indeed it actually sounded rather gross to me, I'm definitely not sold on the whole veg-juicing craze. But really, who looks at a label promising a blend of apples, pears, kale, spinach and baobab, and thinks yum?

Fortunately for me, the smoothie didn't actually contain very much vegetable content: 1.6% kale, 1.6% spinach, and a 'dash of crushed courgette'. I'm guessing that "Gorgeous Greens" is a thinly veiled marketing ploy from Innocent to attract the clean eating brigade who are veering away from the more sugary fruit juices, and are instead opting for the 'healthier' vegetable based drinks.

Be warned though, if you are watching your intake -the new smoothie contains 20g of (naturally occurring) sugars.

As you can see, the smoothie was a sludgy green colour, which did little to whet my appetite. I braced my tastebuds for impact, but was simply met with a sweet, refreshing taste -most prominently of apples and pears. The flavour was unsurprising really, given that the two fruits together account for 77% of the smoothie's ingredients, but it was delicious and left me wondering why apple and pear juice isn't more common. The texture wasn't nearly as thick as the banana based Innocent smoothies, but its lightness felt better suited to the warm weather we've been recently experiencing. 

The wacky name thankfully doesn't equate to a radical flavour, and so the new 'Gorgeous Greens' smoothie is a welcomed summery addition to the range. After all, Innocent smoothies are an easy way to get that extra fruit in -each 250ml serving contains two portions- and they're yummy to boot!

7/10