25 March 2011

Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness

Everyone has something different they need to get started in the morning. For some it's the Diet Coke, others have to have coffee or tea, and others guzzle down milk. As for me, I don't have anything that I chemically need first thing--caffeine doesn't do much for me, and I can live without it. My favorite thing is some sort of mass of ground up vegetables, like V8. These days there are a ton of such blends on the market, and of course people roll their own with juicers.

I recently became enamored of Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness. Full of wheatgrass, spinach, a bunch of fruits, and everybody's favorite cyanobacteria, spirulina. Basically pond scum, this little photosynthetic microorganism has been around for three billion years and is full of all sorts of goodies. If you've spent much time fishing and pulling algae off your line, the aroma is unmistakeable. (Lest you be concerned that you're not getting a full algal load, this beverage also contains an unnamed blue-green algae, Chlorella, a green algae, and Palmaria palmata, a red algae.)

Banana and pineapple aromas and flavors dominate, but there's a lot of grass and dirt. In fact, it reminds me a lot of mowing the yard. I know this sounds terrible, but if you've come to love and appreciate earthy and vegetal characteristics in wine, then it's easier to enjoy them in other foods as well. Plus, I never have to worry about The Roommate swiping any beverage that's the color of the paint used on tanks, Jeeps, and other Army equipment.

13 comments:

Kristi said...

Probably not as healthy as the Green Goodness, but I absolutely love the Bolthouse Vanilla Chai Tea! I'll have to try this one.

Benito said...

Kristi,

Prepare yourself for a whole lotta chlorophyll. :) These kind of blends have been around for a long time, but companies are just figuring out how to market them. In the old days, the local health food store would sell a jar of something that looked like it was pulled out of a lake, and only hardcore vegetarians would drink it. Now they blend in some familiar fruits, put those on the label, and make sure that the label keeps you from seeing the true color of the beverage.

Cheers,
Benito

Dan D said...

Green Goddess is tolerable occasionally, but definitely an acquired taste.

Bolthouse Farms once made a fabulous blend, Vege, nothing but tomato juice, carrot, and celery, it might have had some red pepper as well. Far, far better tasting than any other V-8 type beverage.

Unfortunately they modified the recipe, adding mushrooms among other ingredients. Having a severe mushroom allergy, I haven't tasted it since they revised it. It may still be good, but it's now off limits for me. How I miss the old Vege...

Benito said...

Dan,

One of the things I like in V8 is the beet juice. I can't say that I would think to add mushrooms to such a blend.

Cheers,
Benito

Anonymous said...

I've often enjoyed the Green Goodness (Green Goddess as I've always thought of it). And I like most of Bolthouse Farms offerings, unless they're a particularly juicy color - purple is bound to be too sweet for me - but I don't doubt the heathfulness of any of it in comparison to most other things in the grocery.

I love this review in a wine/beer/cocktail blog! Love wine and beer the most, so you can chuck the cocktails in lieu of smoothie ops...well, just my preference :)

Julie

Benito said...

Julie,

I think one of the secrets to running a blog for a long time is to shake it up from time to time. I did occasional cigar reviews for a while, and who knows, in the future we might see some homemade interpretive dance videos. Or something on stamp collecting. Yeah, the latter is a lot more likely.

Cheers,
Benito

Laurie said...

I just bout it and I Love It!!! I found your post looking to how good it really is for me because it tastes so good!!! Looks weird, but tastes to me like Kiwi and fruit juice pretty much, except for that I like the texture better. I just love this stuff-had no idea it would taste so good...

Anonymous said...

I ran across this in Target and saw that it had spinach, so I decided to give it a try. Great tasting beverage. I've started using it for my weekly Wed. juice fast.

Patrick said...

Does it really have that much wheatgrass in it? My 52 ounce bottle has 290 mg, just doesn't seem like that much.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what the pH is of any of these blends?

Hannah Matthau said...

Yall should look into what's REALLY in it! If you call them inquiring about the natural flavors listed on their ingredient list, they are unwilling to share that information. They could not even guarantee that they are plant based ingredients. And carrageenan which is in the ingredients of some flavours such as the chocolate one, is a known carcinogenic. As in, causes cancer. Also, bolthouse supports NOT labeling GMO products. Which are chemicals and poisons if you didn't know. Always do your research on what's REALLY involved in the things you eat and drink. Not what the company says. Shouldn't you know what you feed your body?

Anonymous said...

Bolthouse Farms Green Goodies: the list of fruits & veggies is a stair step from top to least. The first fruit is the most, the second is the second most & the last is the least. In general this means your getting the daily requirements from the first fruit & veggie while the others not so much. The best way is to get a good blender, grow a garden & have enough bottles on hand for when certain veggies & fruits are out of season. For on the go or after a work out, the ready to drink is ideal but we still need to have our fruits & veggies the old fashion & natural way.. there is no cheating when it comes to healthy & wellness & longevity. We can cheat for a day or so but over all, we should get above average non process over process for general health.

Anonymous said...

I started buying their Daily Greens to get an easy, bioavailable source of extra veggies in my diet. I add a shot and a half of spicy V8 to take the edge off that "kale-blended-with-water" awfulness. I don't like blender smoothies that mix savoury and sweet flavors but know I need to add greens and am not living in a place where I can garden. Will start making my own, I think, soon, but for my busy life Daily Greens + shot of spicy V8 is nice and savoury and mostly healthy.