Is This Viral $7 Sprouts Smoothie an Erewhon Copycat?

California-based grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market is making an attempt its hand at sippable standing symbols. 

When Erewhon’s Coconut Cloud arrived on the scene in early 2022, it fully shattered expectations — primarily, on acceptable worth — for a crafted, layered smoothie. So, in the event you’ve ever felt the urge to sip on a decidedly deluxe smoothie however can’t fathom forking over a crisp Andrew Jackson for it, it is perhaps value visiting your native Sprouts location the following time you end up in Los Angeles. 

Sprouts’ visually beautiful Tropical Glowgetter smoothie debuted on the grocery store earlier this 12 months, rapidly drawing comparisons to an exorbitantly priced viral smoothie that’s been making the rounds on social media for years. The limited-edition pineapple and banana concoction, which is modestly priced at slightly below $7, options vibrant blue spirulina swirls which are harking back to Erewhon’s massively fashionable $19 Coconut Cloud. 

Sprouts has greater than 450 areas throughout america, together with outposts in Colorado and Arizona. Nonetheless, this new drink is just accessible at a choose few areas that function smoothie bars. We noticed it on the menu at Sprouts’ Chula Vista, California location, whereas some people on-line have additionally discovered it elsewhere within the Golden State, corresponding to San Diego and Oakland.

With regards to taste, does this smoothie fulfill the discerning tastes of the TikTok crowd? Some say sure, whereas others argue that it doesn’t evaluate to its dearer counterpart. On Instagram, content material creator Akkaraj (@Hungry4Munchies) shared together with his practically 250,000 followers that its taste is in the end honest, contemplating the cheaper price. 

“Nice taste however a bit of watery, and undoubtedly inferior to Erewhon’s by way of texture, or how wholesome I really feel consuming it, or taste and sweetness,” he stated within the video. “This may undoubtedly get you proper. They made it tremendous quick too, which at Erewhon they be taking quarter-hour minimal. When you’re balling on a funds, it’s going to hit.” 

Regardless of their comparable swirled look, the 2 grocery chains take a vastly completely different strategy. Sprouts’ model, which is available in a beneficiant 20-ounce cup, blends natural agave, bananas, pineapple, unsweetened coconut milk, collagen, and natural blue spirulina. 

“Pineapples are wealthy in vitamin C and include Bromelain, a bunch of enzymes that assist to interrupt down protein,” Adrian Hernandez, RDN and proprietor of AEH Vitamin, an insurance-based follow in Washington D.C., tells Meals & Wine. “Bananas are excessive in potassium, which helps with muscle soreness and cardiovascular well being. Each components are good fiber sources as properly.”

In the meantime, the 20-ounce Erewhon’s Coconut Cloud has an extended components listing: almond milk, pineapple, banana, avocado, almond butter, vanilla collagen, vanilla Stevia, blue spirulina, and coconut cream. Collagen, a nutrient present in equally viral bone broth, is claimed to enhance pores and skin and bone well being (however present analysis is proscribed). 

“I’d count on the Coconut Cloud to be thicker or creamier, and better in energy and fats than the Tropical Glowgetter,” Hernandez explains. 

Notably, Sprouts’ smoothie lacks almond butter and avocado — presumably disappointing for anybody aiming to attain formidable protein macros. Nonetheless, each smoothies function a well-rounded listing of components. 

“The Erewhon Coconut Cloud Smoothie and Sprouts’ model have lots of the identical wholesome components in widespread. Nonetheless, they differ barely of their inclusion of wholesome fat,” Allyson Brigham, MS, RDN, says.  “The selection primarily comes all the way down to the worth of the standard of the components, inclusion of wholesome fat, and the way a lot that advantages the person buyer.”

Erewhon, thought to be considered one of Los Angeles’ pricier pure meals chains, is maybe greatest identified for its extravagantly priced smoothies topped with coconut cream and swirls of vibrant blue spirulina. The grocery store has teamed up with celebrities, manufacturers, and social media personalities for its smoothie bar lineup — most notably Hailey Bieber and Nara Smith. (Erewhon is rumored to promote 40,000 of Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Pores and skin smoothies each month, in response to Vogue Enterprise.) 

This extremely Instagrammable drink has change into a logo of aspirational wealth: a consumable standing image or, conversely, a supply of frustration with the excitement surrounding it. Which begs the query: Would the Erewhon smoothie entice the identical consideration with out its $19 price ticket? 

Meals & Wine reached out to the Sprouts workforce for extra particulars on availability, however we haven’t but heard again. There’s additionally no sight of it on the model’s official social channels, so for the meantime, we’ll have to only wait and see.