Caramel Splash (smoothie) at Soul Tree Organic Café

On Saturday I had lunch at the cafe in Glen Forrest (and the next day I played piano there). Marilyn (one of the cafe owners) had shared a post on FB about a Choice magazine article on sugary drinks so I really wanted to check out her smoothies which she said were “super healthy, organic smoothies.” See her post at https://www.facebook.com/soultreecafe/posts/503076996498034

I’m particularly keen to avoid or reduce consumption of fructose so I asked her what was in her Caramel Splash. I really wanted to know if it had any kind of sweetener in it.  BTW, it tasted GREAT, and the caramel taste is not achieved with any sort of caramel flavouring thingy nor by heating sugar (nor anything else).

Turns out they have three smoothies made with almond milk, and three made with mostly water. If I remember correctly the Caramel Splash is about three-quarters almond milk, plus banana, Maca, mesquite and date. And that’s it.

So, the sweetener is fruit i.e. fructose. However, it begins as whole pieces of fruit and not fruit juice, which must mean there is not really a lot of fructose in the glass and it’s going to take longer to be absorbed. The almond milk has no sugar of any kind. (Soul Tree also sell fruit juice which I would never drink because of all the fructose in it but some people like that and that’s their business.)

So, my conclusion is: safe to drink, nutritious, and absolutely delicious.