The Delightful And Creamy Tropical Smoothie Island Green Drink

If you love the picture that comes to mind when you hear the word tropical, then you are going to love this drink – the island green tropical smoothie.

If you already do love the drink, good for you! Now it’s time to love the one you make yourself in your very own kitchen. The island green smoothie is where healthy meets delicious. It’s a good balance—the type of beverage your doctor and nutritionist want you consuming more of. Really though, you are going to love this smoothie.

Tropical island green smoothie, tropical smoothie island green, or just island green smoothie…the order doesn’t matter. It’s all the same thing. But the actual name is just island green, the “tropical smoothie” part acts as a prefix because the island green smoothie comes all the way from the Tropical Smoothie Cafe. When the prefix is just “tropical,” well that’s just because it’s considered a tropical smoothie.

Try not to get lost in the names. 

Like many other smoothies, this smoothie is definitely easy to make. It is also super quick and definitely one of the healthiest smoothies out there (it’s always featured on the healthy smoothie list). It’s totally perfect for breakfast, as a snack, or even for dessert.

With ingredients like frozen bananas, frozen pineapple, spinach (you won’t even be able to taste this), coconut milk, and other goodies, this smoothie is about to become a permanent selection on your favorite smoothies list.

The smoothie island green came all the way from the Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Commonly referred to as Tropical Smoothie, this is an American restaurant that offers smoothies, flatbreads, bowls, sandwiches, wraps, and salads. They have been around for a long while now and in their many years of existence, the island green smoothie is considered their number 1 smoothie.

No one who walks into Tropical Smoothie Cafe and orders an island green drink walks away without falling in love with this drink. It’s almost impossible. So don’t worry that you won’t like this drink; you are going to love it, no doubt.

How To Make Island Green Smoothie

Though the Tropical Smoothie Cafe chain is widespread and has branches all over, it can get a little tiring having to leave the comfort of your home anytime you crave this smoothie. Or worse still, what if there’s no Tropical Smoothie Cafe around?

You are definitely not going to wait until you happen to visit one.

That is, not if you have copycat tropical smoothie cafe recipes like the one I will be sharing soon. With a copycat tropical smoothie cafe recipe in hand, you could whip up some tropical magic right there in your own kitchen using just a few ingredients from the fridge. Along with, of course, a blender powerful enough to blend these ingredients together without having a meltdown.

If you plan to make your own smoothies, you’re going to need a powerful blender if you don’t have one already. A powerful smoothie blender like NutriBullet will serve you well. It can blend frozen ingredients perfectly, including ice, without breaking down.

Having a good blender around is necessary if you want the consistency of your smoothie to be smooth enough. Other high-end blenders you could look into are Vitamix and Blendtec machines.

So how do you make this smoothie? Good question—I think I’ve kept you waiting enough. To make this smoothie drink, you will need the following island green smoothie ingredients:

•  1 frozen banana.
•  Half a cup of frozen mango.
•  Half a cup of frozen pineapple.
•  1 cup of spinach.
•  1 handful of kale leaves.
•  8 ounces of unsweetened coconut milk.
•  Fresh juice of 1 lime for that zest!

Directions on how to make:

1. Stuff the blender with all the ingredients. Place the liquid ingredients first, that is, the coconut milk and the juice of one lime. Then place the soft ingredients next. In this case, that will be the kale leaves and spinach. Lastly, place the firm ingredients (the frozen ingredients) into the blender.
2. Secure the lid of the blender well and turn on the blender. Blend for about 45 seconds to a minute or until the ingredients are smooth and creamy.
3. Then, turn the blended product into a smoothie cup and drink with a straw. Don’t gulp it all down at once unless you want brain freeze. Drink slowly and savor each sip. To make things even more interesting, you can picture yourself on a nice beach.

This will really serve 1 person, or at most, two kids.

Notes:

1. You can use fresh fruit. Raw and fresh produce is always the healthier option—the best one too. Fresh fruits are even sweeter. The only problem you will encounter while using fresh fruit is the consistency of the smoothie.
2. But, if you are using a very good blender, just blend a little more and you can throw in some ice cubes too. The ice cubes will work on the consistency of the smoothie and will also make it a bit chilled. You can also choose to add the ice cubes after blending.
3. If you’re going with fresh fruits, please pick healthy fresh fruits. Don’t pick fruits that have already gone bad. This includes overripe fruits. Wash the fruit before stuffing it into the blender. Peel the fruits that need peeling, like the banana and pineapple. Chop the fruits into blendable chunks, or basically chunks that won’t clog your blender.

If you so desire, you can use both fresh fruits and frozen fruits, so your drink will still be chilled and there will be no need for the ice cubes.

Just make sure the blender you’re using can definitely handle frozen things if you decide to use frozen fruits and ice cubes.

1. Assuming your blender can’t handle frozen things well, you don’t have to settle on fresh fruits if you don’t want them. All you need to do is to defrost the fruits for a little while. Simple, huh? Even the non-powerful blenders can be put to work.
2. Coconut milk. The coconut milk makes the smoothie thick, creamy, and way more delicious than green smoothies usually are. However, you can also substitute this for almond milk which is even creamier. Keep in mind though, coconut milk gives a tropical feel and flavor that almond milk won’t give you. It’s mind over matter (read: creamy). Mind over creamy.

Perhaps you don’t want to use milk, regardless of what kind of milk it is. Then there is still an alternative for you—coconut water. Awesome, right? You not only retain the tropical feel and flavor, but you also get more nutrients. I could go on and on about the many useful properties of coconut water, but nah, let’s not go down that road.

Optional tropical smoothie island green drink ingredients to try:

• Honeydew melon. Some people take out the frozen mango and substitute it with honeydew melon. Use the same quantity of honeydew melon that would have been used for the mango. So for the recipe above, half a cup of honeydew melon will do.

Also, you don’t necessarily have to remove your mango, you can have your mango and drink your honeydew melon too. Just do significantly reduce the amount of honeydew melon.

• Strawberries. To enjoy strawberries in the Tropical Smoothie island green drink, there’s no need to take out anything. 1 cup of frozen strawberries to the recipe above will do this drink justice. Also, you can stick a berry onto the rim of the serving glass.
• Papaya. You can add papaya to this smoothie too.
• Yoghurt. Not just any kind of yogurt, though. Using high-fat yogurt will automatically shoot up the calories in this drink, and considering the fact that this is a healthy drink, it deserves to remain the same no matter what you are adding. So use non-fat or very low-fat yogurt like Greek yogurt.
• Chia seeds. Yes, this smoothie is already healthy as it is, but for more of a nutrient boost, add some Chia seeds. Just a few will be enough to add some magic to your homemade Tropical Smoothie Cafe island green drink.
• Smoothies generally look fancy when there’s something stuck on the glass rim. So feel free to use a slice of lime or lemon, a strawberry, or any fruit of your choice.
• What else? Erm, anything you feel can go in with the other flavors. I recommend you experiment with a little sample first, just in case your little addition does not quite go well with the taste. Try to avoid added sugar if you want to keep this smoothie healthy.

Island Green Detox Smoothie

The island green detox smoothie is of course also from Tropical Smoothie Cafe. The detox version is a new version of the island green and was introduced to increase the detoxifying effect of this smoothie. This version of the tropical smoothie island green has fewer calories and is healthier than the non-detox version.

What do you need to make the island green detox smoothie? Bananas, pineapple, mango, spinach, kale leaves, and ginger. Yup, our coconut milk is unavoidably absent, but I’m sure you can sneak in a little bit. You can also add chia seeds and some fresh lime or lemon juice.

Then, blend everything together until smooth and enjoy.

This detox smoothie is great for dieters. Swap this smoothie for that unhealthy one you’ve been gulping down.

While smoothies are generally considered healthy, all fruits and veggie smoothies are thought of as the healthier choice. And our smoothie for today, the island green smoothie, falls right here in that category of healthier choices. You can just scroll up and check the ingredient list. Did that already, huh? There’s no unhealthy ingredient, right?

Frankly, the one ingredient there that might be slightly tainted with artificial sweeteners is the coconut milk. If you can’t get unsweetened coconut milk or you don’t trust the ones from the store, you can always make your own.