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In Search of the New York Smoothie
Photo: Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet
A few weeks ago, I was lured into a location of Bluestone Lane — the national chain of Aussie-style cafés — by a poster featuring an atmospheric swirl of cloudy white and cerulean contained in a cup: a Bondi Blue smoothie. I ordered one for $12 and loved it, fruity to the point of being almost syrupy, with a not-unpleasant microscopic crunch from the algae pigment and a touch of gourmandise from the vegan cream that hit the straw every so often.
This, it struck me as I slurped the last few sips, was a Second-Wave Smoothie, where fruit takes a back seat to creams and drizzles and wellness supplements selected as much for their visual appeal as their flavor and (supposed) health benefits. An SWS is to a traditional mix of ice and fruit what a Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino is to “coffee”: more dessert than drink.
The mothership of the Second-Wave Smoothie movement is, of course, Erewhon, the L.A. grocery chain whose own Coconut Cloud smoothie, with similar streaks of coconut cream and blotches of blue spirulina, was clearly the inspiration for Bluestone Lane. Anyone who’s spent two minutes on Instagram knows about Erewhon, its collaborations with celebrities like Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and The Kid Laroi, and its infamous smoothies: $20 blends of fruit and creams and various elixirs that require two blenders each. (Jenner’s $23 Peaches and Cream smoothie is “supercharged” with “electrolytes, lucuma, aloe vera juice, and gut-friendly kombucha.”) Waits for an Erewhon smoothie can stretch to 30 minutes, and all the while, you’ll be left to wonder, Is this really going to be that good?
“It depends what you care about,” says songwriter and former Erewhon tonic-bar barista Mykel Pay. “Are they the best-tasting? No, because you can get a smoothie that has protein or greens or whatever at different smoothie places around L.A.” But for the person committed to wellness, someone who only eats non-GMO and regeneratively farmed food, for whom chaga and camu camu supplementation is a daily routine, “there isn’t a better place.” What about this coast? Is there really such a pronounced wellness gap? “When I think about New York,” Pay says, “I think about cigarettes and bagels and late-night pizza.”
I surveyed some New Yorkers to ask them where they’d found great smoothies, and I was surprised by the number of people who pointed me to the Rockaways. Is it really true that all the best smoothies in New York are squeezed into a thin strip of beach in Queens, or is it just that people love to drink smoothies next to the water? Both things can be true at once, I suppose. A halva smoothie at the cafe Claudette’s was delicious, but so rich it veered closer to dessert. At Brothers, a restaurant with fruity smoothies, mango-cashew basil had a gentle sweetness that I like. I was especially fond of “the Height of Passion,” a cherry-banana concoction that gets added intrigue from goji berries and cacao nibs.
My next step was the kosher supermarket chain Ouri’s, which has locations on the Upper East Side and in Gravesend. Lately, it’s been promoting a collaboration with Testament Beauty, whose Turkish coffee masque is the inspiration for a $14 banana-avocado smoothie flavored with espresso, boosted with collagen, and dotted with cacao nibs to imitate the grit of the exfoliating masque, as well as the telltale coconut cream on the inside of the cup. (In a press release announcing the smoothie, the duo called themselves “the Erewhon of the East.”) It was fine but felt as though it didn’t quite capture the same spirit as Erewhon’s own Vacation Sunscreen smoothie. I wanted a smoothie that stood on its own, not a watered-down version of West Coast wellness.
Photo: Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet
As I continued my journey, what I really discovered is that the New York smoothie very much exists, but that it is a more workaday blend of fruits and greens firmly planted in first-wave traditionalism. I’m thinking of the juice trucks parked on city streets, next to the hot-dog carts and Mister Softees, that are essential to daily life. And I’m thinking about the Brooklyn smoothie shops that embrace a more Caribbean-minded wellness, derived from places where tropical fruit, sea moss, and herbal extracts are a part of life.
There is Pasa Pasa in Prospect–Lefferts Gardens, Punchline in Crown Heights, and the smoothie bar at Lakou Café in Weeksville. Veggies, with three locations in Brooklyn, emphasizes the consumption of raw fruits and vegetables for optimal health. Hibiscus Brew on Flatbush Avenue specializes in sorrel, but the café might be better known for its smoothies, including the blood-red hibiscus infusion, as well as a blue-spirulina smoothie that owner Allison Dunn promises was not at all influenced by Erewhon’s Coconut Cloud. “Each smoothie is a different color,” she says. “We wanted very fun drinks.” Next, they’re launching some Taste of Jamaica smoothies, with soursop, passion fruit, tamarind, and guava. I have no idea if they’ll help firm up my skin, but they only cost like $12, and I’ll be drinking them all summer.
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