As someone who is not really a fan of cold beverages, I had my doubts before trying Smoothie King.

People talked about going to grab smoothies from Smoothie King before basketball practice or after chess club. I knew I had to try it.

There are two locations nearby, one in Plainfield and one in Bolingbrook, making it accessible to pretty much everyone at East.

When I walked into the Plainfield location, it was much smaller than I had expected. There was nowhere to sit and enjoy the smoothies, so it is more of a takeout place.

With even little room to stand in line, the small place begun to make me feel a little claustrophobic.

When I had to decide what smoothie to get, I felt overwhelmed with countless options. Although one is not able to create their own smoothie necessarily, people can add and remove ingredients to make their drink exactly how they want it.

The menu is split into five different sections: slim, fitness, wellness, break time, and kids. My mind was automatically attracted to the break time section which contains mainly fruit smoothies.

I ordered the Pineapple Surf – a combination of pineapples, strawberries, kiwi apple juice blend, dairy whey blend, and turbinado. One sip of this drink, and I immediately fell in love.

It was the perfect combination of fruits with the taste of the pineapples slightly standing out amongst the other flavors.

I also wanted to order a healthier drink, so I did not feel bad about drinking that much sugar.

I chose a no-sugar smoothie called the Daily Warrior from the wellness section. This drink consists of bananas, wild blueberries, peanut butter, dates, organic spinach, almonds, apple blueberry juice blend, and stevia plant-based sweetener.

I did not expect to like this drink very much, but it was not as bad as I had anticipated. All I could taste was the peanut butter which overpowered all other tastes. If there was less peanut butter and more taste of the fruits, I may have enjoyed the drink a little more.

The next day, I found myself craving another smoothie. So I returned and once again was stuck with so many good options. I ended up choosing another healthy smoothie called the Immune Booster.

This smoothie has strawberries, wild blueberries, raspberries, bananas, almond milk, pear juice blend, apple blueberry juice blend and an immune support enhancer. The immune support enhancer powder made this smoothie different from the others that I had tried.

However, I could not detect the taste of the powder. I had ordered this smoothie with yogurt in it to make it creamier. I loved it.

What makes Smoothie King different from some other smoothie places is their smoothies don’t contain any high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, rBST/rBGH added hormones in their dairy, gluten, NSF-banned substances, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or trans fat.

Not only are their smoothies delicious, but they are also extremely healthy and definitely worth the trip.