I love juice-shop style smoothies! For years I tried to duplicate these smoothies at home without success so I gave up trying until I discovered four things that make a difference in the taste of homemade smoothies: frozen fruit, sherbet, a powerful blender, and the perfect ratio.

Frozen Fruit
Juice shops use scoops of fresh fruit and ice in their smoothies. I found that fresh fruit works best at juice shops because they use a high volume of fruit that doesn’t sit long enough to get old. At home, though, it is hard to make enough smoothies to use all the fruit before it gets past its peak. Also, many fruits are hard to find fresh when it’s the off-season.
The solution is to use frozen fruit! You can either buy frozen fruit or freeze fresh fruit before it becomes old. Always wash and air-dry fruit before freezing it so that it is ready to use because washing frozen fruit always leads to some thawing, and freezing wet fruit will cause it to clump together. Also, by using frozen fruit, it eliminates the need for ice in smoothie making.

Frozen Sherbet
Many juice shops add frozen yogurt, sherbet, or sorbet to their smoothies. This sweetens the smoothie, especially when using sour fruit.

Powerful Blender
A good blender is a key to getting a smooth texture when making smoothies. However, most people are not going to have a commercial smoothie blender on their countertop at home. If you are thinking about buying a new blender and want to make smoothies, it is a good idea to do some online research for the best blenders to make homemade smoothies so that you can see the latest options available for purchase. Fortunately, there are good options available at all price points.

The Perfect Ratio
One-half (U.S.) cup is the most common ingredient amount for making smoothies at home. This means each fruit amount is 1/2 cup, as well as the frozen sorbet, juices, and milk. If you know the ingredients in your favorite juice shop smoothie, you can create it at home by adding the main ingredients in 1/2 cup amounts and then blending.

Here are four popular juice shop smoothie recipes for you to try. Each one is easy to customize to suit your taste.


Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Servings |
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen blueberries
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen sliced strawberries
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 1/2 cup pineapple sherbet (or sorbet)
Ingredients
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- Place all ingredients into a blender (or use an immersion blender).
- Blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Servings |
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen blueberries
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen sliced strawberries
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cranberry juice
- 1/2 cup raspberry sherbet (or sorbet)
Ingredients
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- Place all ingredients into a blender (or use an immersion blender).
- Blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Servings |
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen pineapple chunks
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen mango chunks
- 1/2 medium banana
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup pineapple-mango juice
- 1/2 cup pineapple sherbet (or sorbet)
Ingredients
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- Place all ingredients into a blender (or use an immersion blender).
- Blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Servings |
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen blueberries
- 1/2 heaping cup frozen mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, & blueberries)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup pomegranate juice
- 1/2 cup raspberry sherbet (or sorbet)
Ingredients
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- Place all ingredients into a blender (or use an immersion blender).
- Blend until smooth. Serve immediately.