The History of Smoothies

History of Smoothies
by Dan Titus, director of The Juice and Smoothie Association, JASA

The dictionaries of the world are behind the times when defining the word smoothie. I am sure this will change in the next few years.

Merriam-Webster DictionaryTM

Smoothie

Main Entry: smoothy
Variant(s): or smooth·ie /'smü-[th]E/
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural smooth·ies

Date: 1904
1. A smooth-tongued person
2. A person with polished manners b: One who behaves or performs with deftness, assurance, and easy competence; especially: a man with an ingratiating manner toward women.

Noun: someone with an assured and ingratiating manner. Syn: smoothy, sweet talker charmer.

As evidenced above, the word smoothie dates back to the early 1900's. This is the first published definition of the word; however, it can be assumed that the word had been part of the American vocabulary for many years prior to this. The words smoothie, smoothy and smoothee go as far back as the early 1930's. The word smoothie was used first by the Adler Company of Connecticut in 1932 as a trade name for the company's line of foundation garments, namely, girdles and brassieres. Therefore, the first legal references to these words did not have anything to do with drinks or foods at all until a few years later.

Bowey's Incorporated of Indianapolis, Indiana, marketed a chocolate syrup for food purposes, and a powder for making chocolate syrup in 1935. This is the first reference to drinks for the words. There is even a song from this period called, You're an Old Smoothie. The words continued to be used for many other trade purposes.

The word smoothie was used as a trade name for a brand of automotive paints in the late 1950's. It was also used as a trade name for a manufacturer who made caps, gloves and bathing suits. Also, at that time, there was a manufacturer who made electrical components who used the word smoothie as a trade name for switches and wall plates. The word continued to evolve.

The tropical regions of South America are traditionally the fruit capitals of the world. Brazil is the largest supplier of these fruits in the world; it is the fruit juice capital, too. Natives have known about the benefits of juice for centuries and have included it as a staple in their diet.

Latin Americans, with their rich supply of exotic fruits, have enjoyed the benefits of juicing for years. I can remember as a boy vacationing along the Baja coast of Mexico in the late 1950's, finding tiny thatched juice bars right on the beach!

Smoothies became popular in the middle 1960's, when there was a resurgence in the United States in macrobiotic vegetarianism. Retail health restaurants literally sprouted up to cater to the demand. One of the popular menu items was the fruit juice smoothie. California, one of the focal points of this trend, borrowed the venerable fruit juice smoothie from its South American neighbors.

In 1969 there was a trademark registered for the name "Cream Smoothie" in reference to a soft drink line. The first reference to a fruit slush came in the middle 1970's with the name California Smoothie, which was claimed by California Smoothie Company of Paramus New Jersey. Mr. Smoothie, of Houston, Texas, used the name in, "Famous Mr. Smoothie's Frozen Yogurt" since the early 1980's.

The word smoothie has been used to describe many products over the years. From bicycles, girdles, to ball point pens. There is even a popular band called the Smoothies. However, the word, in relation to the frozen beverage industry did not really become generic until Smoothie King of Kenner, Louisiana, made the word a household name.

The smoothies of old differed by today's standards because most did not have ice milk, or frozen yogurt in them. They were basically fruit, fruit juice, and ice. The idea of adding vitamin supplements had not taken shape yet. By the early 1970's, ice milk had been commandeered to make what then was known as the fruit shake. These shakes were served at local health-food restaurants and within health-food stores.

The 1970's, with its earth-tone decor of natural colors, was the renaissance decade for natural health food stores and restaurants. National Universities touted the warnings of afragile environment to students, who took the heed to help protect the environment and their own bodies. The word natural was the marketing battle cry of many national brands of foods, from breakfast cereals to carbonated soda drinks. Along with the long hair and "earth-shoes", came the proliferation of "health restaurants". I can remember Main Street, Huntington Beach, California, with the head shops, and the Tofu and Smoothie Bars. There is one still there to this day, serving avocado, alfalfa sprout sandwiches and fresh squeezed carrot juice, and of course, fruit juice smoothies.

In the early 1970's, Stephen Kuhnau, Smoothie King cofounder, called his "smoothies" energy drinks in order to describe his product to customers. He said, "I didn't invent the word smoothie. The first time I heard the word was in reference to fruit and fruit juice based drinks made by the "Hippies" in the late 1960's. Since then, I have always been on the look out as to where the name smoothie originated. To date, I have seen old black and white movies where a "cool gent" is described as a smoothy, and even reference to a brand of cigarettes called smoothies." Enter the 1980's.

"Yuppie malts and yuppie doughnuts describe
smoothies and bagels in the late 1980's."

The sports and fitness trends were beginning to catch on in the early 1980's. With these trends, came the increased awareness of natural foods. Marketers began to openly market "calcium" and "oat-bran" as supplements to their products. This ushered in the beginning to the first specialized juice and smoothie bars, which are increasing in popularity today.

"In the 1990's the smoothie evolves into
the truly politically correct shake."

In the 1990's, with the growing interest in good health and convenience, juice and smoothie bars were experiencing rapid growth as more and more people were introduced to the concept of healthy meal alternatives. The 1990's emerged as a decade of maturation for the fitness movement, marked by consumer interest in diet and exercise. A simultaneous counter-trend has been the acceleration of the fast-food craze as evidenced by the consumers' demand for healthy convenient meal alternatives. The juice and smoothie bar industry will be frozen yogurt business of the 2000's. Leaving behind the politically correct nineties…

"In the 2000's the smoothie emerges
as the whimsical beverage recognized for its
health benefits worldwide."

The juice and smoothie industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. The number of juice and smoothie bars has skyrocketed and retail stores can now be found throughout the world. Stores are beginning to sprout-up on school campuses, in airports, and generally anywhere people congregate. The concept has really gone full circle, as evidenced by Wild Oats, the nations largest natural health-food chain, providing cyber-juice bars inside some of their store locations. This is a throwback to the 1970's model where juice and smoothie bars were a sideline to the natural health-food store. This concept echoes the recent trends in the coffeehouse business, where computer terminals with access to the internet are provided for customer use.

People like choices. They demand products that appeal to their needs and wants for a healthier life style. What can be simpler than a smoothie? It's good for you and has zero fat. It's a healthy meal in a cup. It's a treat. It's a snack. It tastes great!

Therefore, we continue to see the gradual development the smoothie. From its formidable beginnings in South America, as basically a fruit slush, to the most recent incarnation as the power drink for the future. Juice & smoothie bars will continue to proliferate as demand for meal alternatives broadens.

Definitions of Juice & Smoothie Bars

Juice Bar - Retail quick-service restaurant operation that specializes in fruit juice smoothies and fresh-squeezed juice. Products in this category are positioned as a meal replacement or meal enhancement to healthy snacks and/or meals served in the store.

Smoothie Store - Retail quick-service restaurant that specializes in fruit juice smoothies and no fresh-squeezed juice. Products in this category are primarily positioned as a meal replacement and/or a dessert.

Frozen Dessert Store - Retail ice cream and/or frozen yogurt store, which specializes in frozen desserts. Fruit juice smoothies served in this category are positioned primarily as a dessert offering.

Smoothie Mixes or Starter Bases - Wholesale products offered mainly to existing retail food service operations that wish to diversify menu offering to include fruit juice smoothie products. These products are positioned as a meal enhancement and/or as an after meal dessert.

Industry Blueprints

The West Coast

In the true definition of a California Juice & Smoothie Bar, the first Juice Club opened in April 1990 at San Luis Obispo, California. This industry flagship for the west coast introduced a new concept to local college students eager to embrace fruit juice smoothies, fresh squeezed juice, and healthy snacks. The success of this store set the stage for expansion.

The awareness of the juice bar phenomenon became evident when Juice Club opened a franchise store in 1993, in Irvine, California. The store, located on the corner of Harvard and Main streets in a local shopping center, became an instant icon. The location is perfect! It is located between University of California, Irvine, and John Wayne Airport. The area around the airport sports a huge business complex. The location provided the necessary demographic base for instant success, exemplified by frequent visits by college students and local business people.

The Harvard and Main Street location planted the seed for the proliferation of the juice bar industry in Southern California. Business people and college students who frequented the location saw the upside potential of the concept, and began to emulate the idea. For example, upstarts like Juice Stop opened their first store in nearby Lake Forest in December, 1993. Juice It Up! opened their first store in Brea, an inland Southern California community with similar demographics to Irvine, in March,1995. Both companies are successful players in the industry today.

The Southeast

Industry veteran, Smoothie King, is a New Orleans-based chain, that began franchising in 1989. They define the concept in regards to the smoothie store concept because they offer only fruit juice smoothies, nutritional products and supplements.

There are many emulators in this segment, the most notable, Planet Smoothie, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

It is interesting to note, that for the most part, you will find juice bars on the West Coast and smoothie stores in the southern portions of the United States. This points to the direct correlation with industry blueprint influences, which generally set standards for a particular region.

Therefore, the specialty juice and smoothie concept has been around for years. But, not until the middle 1990's, did the consumer awareness for the products increase. This is attributed primarily to consumer demand for healthy meal alternatives and to the sheer number of specialty stores popping up across the country, thereby introducing and educating people about the industry.

Consumers, with their driving requests for a healthier meal alternative, have been eager to embrace the juice and smoothies. Restaurants now offer low calorie and salt free menu offerings to patrons. Why not add juice and/or smoothies? Many, in the future, will begin to offer fruit juice smoothies and juices as menu offerings.

New entrants into the juice and smoothie business include many existing franchise companies, such as sandwich chains, existing yogurt companies, and convenience stores. The basic strategy has been to create a brand name that can be co-branded and offered to existing franchisees already in the retail channel. This is evidenced by companies such as: Subway Corporation, 7-Eleven's Frut Cooler Brand and Blimpie International's Smoothie Island Brand.

As the juice and smoothie industry matures we will undoubtedly see more of this as more established restaurant franchisers scramble to capitalize on this growing trend. This causes a "blurring of lines" for the traditional juice and smoothie bar. The question: Is the smoothie being offered as a concept or menu item?

Smoothies have been around for years as a simple menu item, and then the product became a branded concept, which ushered in the first specialized retail juice and smoothie bars. As more established restaurant chains jump into the juice and smoothie business, they have a choice to develop their own brand of smoothies or obtain an established brand already in the marketplace.

Recently, co-branding has been prevalent in the juice smoothie business; however, these co-brands, at this time, are not established and it will be an expensive endeavor to entrench these brand names into the marketplace. We all know the pull of a powerful brand name. Look at the power of Coca-Cola as a menu item. Building a brand name is difficult and costly.

There are dominate regional brand names in the juice and smoothie retail segment, such as Jamba Juice and Smoothie King. These are basically the leaders that many established franchise chains have chosen to emulate. The question is: How do you emulate a whole juice and smoothie bar concept with just a menu item and at the same time, stave off the dominate retail juice/smoothie bar concept brands when competition heats up as the industry matures?

Care must be taken at every turn of the marketing process and companies have to know how to position their smoothie products in the marketplace. This is critical. Is the product offered as a:

• Meal replacement
• Meal enhancement
• Dessert

For the most part, stand-alone retail juice and smoothie stores position themselves as meal replacement and/or meal enhancement. Yogurt and established frozen dessert stores position their smoothies as dessert offerings.

When you go out for a smoothie, be aware of how the store is offering the smoothie. Read more about smoothie definitions later in the "Smoothie Definitions" section.

The juice and smoothie business continues to evolve. We have seen the original concepts change in recent years, whereby companies have added specialty restaurant items to their menus. For example, gourmet coffee, salads, sandwiches, wrap sandwiches and bagels have become popular offerings. Some chain's have even developed.

Worldwrapps of San Francisco serves wrap sandwiches and smoothies. Many coffee houses offer juice and smoothies and bagels, too. Therefore, we are seeing "traditional" specialty and co-branding concepts merging together under one roof.