New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area Jack in The Box outlets: Fruit smoothies

by Teresa Gubbins

Jack in the Box smoothies: mango on left, strawberry banana on right

Jack in the Box unveiled a new product at the end of July called Real Fruit Smoothies, available in three flavors: Strawberry Banana, Mango, and Orange Sunrise.

They must've read the same report as Starbucks -- the one that notes the rapid growth of the smoothie market with a projected growth of 10-13% in the next five years, and the inevitable entry of "food chains, quick service restaurants, and beverage companies" into smoothies.

JITB's smoothies are no Jamba Juice. Unlike Jamba, which uses real fruit (even if it is frozen), JITB describes its version as a combination of Minute Maid fruit juice and nonfat frozen yogurt.

Those ingredients were in plain sight at a recent visit to an area JITB. An employee pulled out three Minute Maid cartons and plopped them onto the same counter where customers place their order; placed two plastic cups on the counter; and glugged the chunky fruit-goo into the cups, about an inch deep. Leaving the three cartons on the counter, the employee turned to a soft-serve machine and extruded spirals of frozen yogurt before disappearing over by the mixer. A few minutes later, he returned with the finished product.

The "fruit" from which Jack in the Box makes its fruit smoothies.

Personally, I treasure the blase disenchantment that results when employees are making minimum wage, especially in this situation, since it afforded the opportunity to snap a photo of the cartons sitting on the counter with the fruity goo oozing down the sides. I also applaud demystification, especially at a fast-food place, and celebrate that they're not trying to hide their methods. Still, it seems unlikely that such a scenario would please the home office.

Actual tasting

The two sampled were strawberry-banana and mango. Hoo boy, were they sweet. One site says that the 16-ounce size strawberry-banana smoothie has 57 grams of sugar, and the 24-ounce has 86 grams of sugar. Which on its own is no small potatoes. But there was more to it than that; the sweetness was the teeth-baring kind you get from sucralose, which is also how it struck Impulsive Buy. The fruity flavor was muddled, as if the fruit had been stewed or cooked. That said, they're definitely fruitier than the offering from Starbucks, which is described as a protein drink, emphasis on protein, and therefore not exactly the same.

The texture was odd, with an unexpected icy grit, as if the employee had snuck in some ice while over at the hidden mixer machine. It wasn't bad but having witnessed the assembly of the fruit puree and the frozen yogurt made it seem like the smoothie would be creamier.

Probably the best thing you could say about these is that they're exactly the kind and caliber of smoothie you would expect from a fast-food place.

Those frozen-yogurt machines aren't cheap; Nation's Restaurant News says that the cost per store to add the smoothie line is about $8,000. Whaddo you wanna bet they start offering frozen yogurt with toppings somewhere down the road?