Jamba Juice Headquarters
Disclosure: Some of you may know this about me some of you may not but I have been openly anti-Jamba Juice with regards to their “healthy” image. Yes they have food items that can be good for you and yes of course they are better than other fast food restaurants (as a matter of fact Zagat just rated them #1 Healthy option in the Quick Refreshment category in their 2009 Fast Food Survey) but I feel that they somewhat mislead the uninformed…and by uninformed I mean the typical American trying to be “healthy”. They tout their offerings as good for you but some of them clearly are not, a 30oz Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie has 900 calories and 166 g sugar! That’s more sugar in two pints of some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. In fact a whopping 75% of their “power smoothies” contain over 100 grams of sugar. Now you and I both realize that these particular items aren’t healthy but what would normally be considered a shake between meals has now magically become a smoothie as an after workout replenishment or a meal replacement. I will stop with the rant now but I did want to give you an idea as to how I viewed Jamba prior to this event.
Jamba Juice Patio
I could have broken this up into several posts but seeing as to how they will be releasing the new menu additions on Monday I figured I’d slap it all into one. That being said you may be in for the long haul here. Now buckle up because I’m going to take you for a ride (literally) of my trip through the test kitchens of the international headquarters of Jamba Juice located in Emeryville, CA (sounds cooler that way but really it’s just a 55 minute drive up the interstate from me).
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So let me make my goodbyes now. Currently buried under 225 XL Pizzas, Bear Silber will be missed. Things just got a whole lot busier. Goodbye and good luck!