Best Juice to Use in Smoothies

The early 2010s were the golden years for fast food-style smoothie stores. Smoothie King, Jamba Juice, and Robecks cropped up on every corner until people figured out that those things were like a thousand calories. But while those smoothie stores have been replaced with juice bars and acai shops, you can make your own smoothie and keep it on the healthy side. The best smoothies are the ones you make at home and these are the best juices to use in smoothies.

As the old saying goes “you get what you pay for,” and cold pressed organic juice, while expensive, is the best quality. The cold press process helps retain the juice’s natural flavor that would otherwise get lost in the heat of the pasteurization process. There are a lot of bad orange juices out there that are filled with sugar or made from previously frozen gunk that’s sat in storage for months. Evolution Cold Pressed Organic Orange Juice is the best orange juice to use in your smoothie.

Grapefruits are delicious but they can be hard to eat. Everytime I cut one in half and stick my spoon in, it squirts me in the eye like a freaking cartoon. So I get my grapefruit fix by using grapefruit juice as a base for my smoothies. Don’t sleep on the juice game over at Trader Joe’s—they’re making some of the best grapefruit juice. It’s a gorgeous color and has just enough of those bitter grapefruit notes to avoid the overly sweet sugar trap that so many other grapefruit juices fall into. 

You don’t have to like making love at midnight or getting caught in the rain to like a smoothie that tastes like a piña colada. This pineapple juice is the fastest way to have a little tropical vacation in a cup before you go to work. Nature’s Nectar Pineapple Juice is from Aldi, and we all know that Aldi is the Wario to Trader Joe’s’ Mario. This pineapple juice is our favorite because it doesn’t shy away from the sharp,citrusy kick that made us love pineapple flavor in the first place. This juice combines its tangy citrus flavor with a smooth sweetness that tastes amazingly high quality, especially for the price.

Cherry juice is one of those things that you want to be tart. With apple juice you expect a lot of sweetness and orange juice needs that bit of sour. But good cherries always need to be tart. This was our favorite tart cherry juice, not just for its tartness, but it also nails the necessary sweet component to make a cherry juice that sings. Its sweetness level is truly amazing considering there is no added sugar. Those are some sweet cherries in there. You might not think of putting cherry juice in a smoothie, but that bold blend of sweet and tart will add a ton of flavor to any fruit combo. 

Simply is one of the best juice brands out there and this apple juice is no exception. This is a pressed juice that’s not made from concentrate, so it’s about as close to a homemade taste that you can get from a store (and one of the best apple juices, period, according to our taste test). If you’ve ever gone apple-picking and loved that fresh-pressed apple juice with the little bits of apple still floating around, then this is the apple juice for you. And it’s a great base for a smoothie. It’s sweet and flavorful but it won’t overpower all the other ingredients and fight the flavors. Almost everything goes with apple juice and Simply Apple is simply the best.

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