Do you have a love hate relationship when it comes to green smoothies?

I definitely understand your current dilemma.

Green smoothies are very healthy concoctions but sometimes it makes you feel like you’re zipping an unending gallon of grass (literally!).

During the first days of my green juicing journey, I really struggled to appreciate the taste of my drink and also it takes forever for me to consume an entire glass of it, every gulp is alien to me.

However these hurdles are perfectly normal. The great thing about these green smoothies is that you can tweak your very own healthy concoction into a yummy, healthy, and desirable enough to your palate without adding “artificial” sugar to it.

I am so proud to share my very own techniques on how I improved the taste of my green smoothies by using raw and healthy ingredients. Here they are:

Use a neutral tasting dark green veggie

What do I mean by this? Picking the main ingredient for you smoothie should consist mostly or up to 90% of raw dark green leafy vegetable. You may ask why dominate your green smoothie with greens and not too much fruits? It’s because fruits contains sugar (natural sugar), which is why pure fruit smoothie is not as healthy or effective as green smoothies.

There are several dark green vegetable that you can choose from, below are some of it:

KaleSpinachRapiniBrussels sproutsBroccoliCollard greensBok ChoyWatercress

When I started my green smoothing journey I tasted all of the items above but I ended up using spinach as my starter dark green veggie. Spinach is neutral tasting and almost tasteless. I usually add a tiny rind of pineapple, a thin slice of apple, half of banana, and a spoonful of flax seeds.

You can eventually start experimenting on other dark leafy vegetable once your taste buds have adjusted to green smoothies. For now, I mainly use kale and collard greens instead of spinach

Zest your green smoothie with raw cacao nibs

I love chocolates even before getting into green smoothie journey and I can say that I love it still. So I thought of putting in some chocolatey flavor to my green concoction and enjoy the goodness of chocolates. For this method I bought raw cacao nibs and add it to my green smoothie.

Raw cacao nibs is far more different than commercialized chocolate bars with loads of sugars and preservatives on it. Cacao nibs are raw and unprocessed which makes it suitable for our green smoothie campaign. Raw cacao nibs is naturally rich in magnesium, fibre, iron, antioxidants, and oxalic acids. Also, cacao has the ability to improve our moods.

Cacao nibs really helped me in starting my awesome green smoothie journey.

Sweeten your green smoothie with Stevia

I first tasted Stevia in an organic garden in Chicago. The lady who maintains the tiny garden handed me and my wife an estranged leaf and said “go on, taste it”. I was skeptic at first but I don’t want to offend the lady so I ate it. To my surprise it’s sweet and tasted so good.

Then she explained about stevia and how it is being used as a natural and alternative sweetener.

I usually add 2-3 leaves of it on my green smoothie. The sweetness that stevia offers is sugar and calorie free.

It has been widely used by natives of South and Central America long long time ago and slowly gaining popularity in North American territories.

If you happen to live in a place where there is no winter and lots of sunshine, you can try and grow some for your consumption.

There are individuals who lives in a 4 seasoned countries who also succeeded in growing stevia indoors. There are commercially available powdered stevia and you can get them online here (via Amazon).

I also usually find them in local organic growers in my area and some Chinese / Asian groceries.

Infuse your smoothie with lemon

This trick is the very first thing I did to endure my grass tasting smoothie. I prefer putting drops of lemon on my water so I figured to do the same with my smoothies.

I love the sour fusion it creates on my taste buds and it makes it easier for me to finish my green concoction.

Lemon also alkalinizes a liquid so it could help us in our journey towards better health. The good thing about lemon is that it is cheap and mostly available everywhere.

Chill your Smoothies

I love chilled drinks and I always appreciate my green smoothies even more by chilling it or till it looks like a green slushie. When I was starting out as a green smoothie enthusiast, I usually prepare my drinks ahead of time so I could put it in my freezer and have it chilled.

Whenever my schedule is tight I just popped lots of ice cubes on my green smoothie and gulp it. I don’t own a high powered blender back then so I can’t crush ice along with my veggies.

Since I became a serious green smoothie enthusiast I was able to invest on a high powered machine that crushes ice along with my green ingredients in a few seconds, Yey!

Nowadays, I do enjoy chilled green drinks in an instant. If you are thinking of upgrading into a high powered blender anytime soon you may want to check out my reviews on the following power blenders.

I have shared with you my simple techniques on how to improve the taste of your green smoothie, though I have one last thing to share. It has nothing to do with improving the taste but, something to do with speeding up your green smoothie consumption.

If you still feel awkward gulping your green concoction then I suggest that you use a simple and uncomplicated invention which is…. drumroll please…..

…. zipping straw

Using a straw will speed up your gulping tremendously.

To this day I still use it, especially now that I have switch from a newbie juicer to a hardcore one. Straw is simply awesome!

At the end of the day it is very important to keep in mind that cha
nging ones eating habit really requires perseverance and focus. It will really challenge you at first especially if you are mostly carnivore like I used to, but, if there is no pain there is no gain.

Training your body to consume healthy foods is tough but it is so rewarding afterwards! I couldn’t help but to compare my old self to what I am now. I can feel the surge of energy, clarity and a healthier body with every gulp of my green smoothie.

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