With more people becoming health conscious by the day, smoothies were becoming increasingly popular at a time – and now regardless of a fitness-centred life, smoothies are a hit among old and young alike.

Getting to enjoy all the goodness of fruit and dairy through this sweet and filling beverage with zero guilt is an added bonus that everyone loves – fitness freaks or indulgent foodies!

Cup Café located opposite Odel, Alexandra Place, we think is a terribly underrated place! Their food is consistently good, and their Raspberry Fruit Shake simply swept us off our feet. We never seemed to have enough of it and the whipped cream atop the beverage was equally enticing. Big ups to Cup Café!!

Both Milk & Honey Café and the new Sweetberry have very decent smoothies, and would be undisputed if not for the better taste offered by Cup Café and Roots at Odel. Though we walked in to the said Roots outlet with little expectation since we were smack disappointed during the milkshake hunt, we were only too pleasantly surprised. The word is hackneyed nowadays, but the Roots smoothie truly deserves to be called ‘awesome’ because it was nothing less!! 

While most mainstream restaurants have considered adding this to their regular menu, it was disappointing to find that the Heladiv Tea Club at the Dutch Hospital did not serve this, although they can add milk to fruit granitas upon request. We turned the offer down, however great their service, since it won’t be fair to review a milk-added granita alongside smoothies!

Disappointment awaited as we checked in at the Colombo Fort Café at the same venue, since they did not have it either! In the meantime to kill a smoothie, ideally full of natural goodness, is to use artificial essence and that’s precisely what happened at Cioconat Lounge!!

Check out our ratings, and tell us what you think.

	Raspberry Fruit Shake   Cup Café (No.6, Baptist Chapel Road, Colombo 07)
Taste	* * * * *
Price	Rs.400
Value for money	High
Variety	Cup Café serves two variants of the fruit shake, which are kiwi and strawberry, and they are priced the same.
Overall	This is easily one of the better smoothies available in Colombo, as we found it to be extremely chilled (perfect for this balmy weather), delicious and large in quantity. An excellent tart flavour of fresh raspberry penetrates the beverage and combined with a large swirl of fluffy whipped cream on top, it’s a very good drink that comes highly recommended by V Try U Buy.

	Pineapple, Mango, Ginger and Lime Smoothie   Milk & Honey Café (No.12, Barnes Place, Colombo 07)
Taste	* * * *
Price	Rs.330 + service charge and taxes
Value for money	High
Variety	The café serves dairy and non-dairy smoothies, both of which range in a variety of fruit and vegetable and are all priced the same.
Overall	Tastes as wholesome as it looks and there is no added sugar in the smoothie, which is as healthy as you can get. The flavours are subtle with a strong aftertaste of yoghurt. It isn’t sweet at all but it’s chilled and healthy.

	Blueberry Smoothie   CIOCONAT Lounge (No. 107, Barnes Place, Colombo 07)
Taste	* *
Price	Rs.500
Value for money	Low
Variety	They serve kiwi, mango, peach, banana, raspberry, strawberry and strawberry and banana smoothies, which are all, priced the same.
Overall	We found this smoothie to be a huge disappointment because fruit flavourings are used to prepare the smoothie instead of fresh fruit, which really does defeat the purpose of drinking a healthy smoothie. In addition, it is rather overpriced for a beverage containing something other than the expected fresh fruit. It’s chilled and refreshing though but definitely not recommended if you’re looking for a smoothie made with fresh fruit. There’s a buy one get one free smoothie deal from Friday-Sunday.

	Strawberry Smoothie   Sweetberry (No.4, De Fonseka Road, Colombo 04)
Taste	* * * *
Price	Rs.350 (large)
Value for money	Average
Variety	Sweetberry also serves raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, banana, mango and mixed berry smoothies, which are priced between Rs.230-Rs.450 depending on whether you pick the regular or large cup.
Overall	The strawberry smoothie was not too sweet and was just a blend of yoghurt, milk and strawberries. We deemed this smoothie as one of the healthier versions found in Colombo (apart from the Milk & Honey Café fare), and we thought it was rather good and decently priced.

	Mango and Strawberry Smoothie   Roots, Odel (No.5, Alexandra Place, Colombo 07)
Taste	* * * * *
Price	Rs.350 (regular)
Value for money	High
Variety	Roots serves a variety of energy, berry, tropical, citrus and vegetable smoothies priced between Rs.250-Rs.450 depending on whether you pick the regular or large cup.
Overall	Following our previous disappointment with the chocolate milkshake at Roots, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this smoothie was all kinds of delicious and fruity. Thick and orange with little beads of strawberry seeds, the regular sized smoothie is definitely value for money as the glass it’s served in is quite large. There wasn’t too much sugar added into the beverage, and although they could’ve used more ice to ensure a perfectly chilled beverage, it was still an excellent smoothie. We wouldn’t advise a takeaway cup as it looked horribly small. Two thumbs up!

Our Picks: Cup Café and Roots

By Nivedha Jeyaseelan and Sarah Kellapatha