The International Smoothie Week

I haven't even published the PomegraNet yet and already people are asking me about the smoothies I mentioned lately. The International smoothie week, seems to be a one company promotion - The big J, not yet a pomegranate player but full of interesting information to read coming from the UK the capital of bottled smoothies (except maybe Iceland). Law in the UK allow to sell in-store fresh packed non-pasteurized juice which is forbidden in many countries like the U.S. and Israel because health-safety issues. Most of the world still consume more smoothies made-by-order than bottled.

It seems that the definition of smoothie is not clear enough. I think there should be a clear definition for 100% fruit smoothie to give it an advantage. Current definitions still sometimes use yogurt or milk as ingredients, but the lead definition today is a thick drink made by the whole fresh fruit (preferred non-concentrate) with all its nutrition. Mostly it's a blend but not necessarily. I like it because it feels more fruit-like. You can't see through most fruit, they do have fibers inside. Smoothies are not clear as most of the juice that sold nowadays. It's the real thing.

According to Mintel report UK smoothies market was growing by no less than 523% to reach £134 million in 2006 with consumption growing to 34 million litres of smoothies last year - enough to fill almost 14 Olympic size pools, up from just 6.3 million litres in 2001. While at the same time, the U.S. smoothies market was $2 billion from made-to-order and packaged smoothies, up more than 80 percent in the last five years, with more than 4,000 retail locations reported in the U.S. last year.

The pomegranate seems to catch well in this market. The latest product by Crussh, the UK's largest smoothie bar chain is a super blend containing pomegranates.