Earthbar – Berkeley

After my morning coffee, I was craving a green smoothie for some odd reason, so I did a quick Google search and found Earthbar.

Surprisingly, Earthbar has been around since 1971, but it was new to me.

Overall my first impression was that it was a nice clean store pretty good vibe. They have music and friendly people.

Unfortunately, this location doesn’t have anywhere to sit inside. And I chose to go on a Sunday morning. Beautiful day in Berkeley, but it is it was very cold. But it’s just way too cold to enjoy my smoothie comfortably. I think it’s in the high 40s, a little colder than I like it to be, especially if you want just to hang out, read a book or do some work.

I noticed that they have, in addition to, you know, the food offerings and the drinks; they have supplements and prepackaged treats and a limited choice of meal boxes that you can buy.  In addition, they have vitamins, protein powders, and what look like nootropics.

They have both whey and plant-based protein. I went ahead and ordered a Lean + Green smoothie. The Lean + Green smoothie is packed with 21g of plant-protein Avocado, spinach, hemp seeds, chia seeds, cinnamon, sea salt, coconut water, almond milk, blue spirulina, maca, Superfood protein. I was expecting it to be a little gritty or really thick because. That’s what I’m used to expecting of plant-based protein, or at least that has been the case with all plant-based proteins except one, Ancient Nutrition. Ancient Nutrition has some pretty light plant proteins, but their flavor is very, very unique.

In the case of this place, they use protein with no flavor, which leads me to now wanting to try unflavored Ancient Nutrition.  So far, I’ve tried vanilla and chocolate. And the vanilla was good. The flavor is on the stronger side. But anyways, getting back to Earthbar. Interestingly, the texture of the plant protein is not gritty or didn’t make the smoothie too thick to where you can’t really consume it through your straw. So yeah, pretty good with that respect. However, I give the flavor a 6 on a scale of 10. After the texter, I always play attention to the flavor. In this case, it gave the smoothie a doughy taste. I disliked to the point that I would not commit to a full container of other to-go offerings.  I am pleased enough with Earthbar to go back and try something else.

I’m interested in trying their Great Breakfast, which packs a whopping 28g of protein.  It sounds a little hardier. I really enjoy smoothies that have peanut butter and all that good stuff in them.

Overall I am pleased with my experience and will give Earthbar a thumbs up. I recommend you give this place a shot.