Each summer for a couple of weeks, my family trades our hometown tourist destination for another one: we make the short trip across Nantucket Sound to Martha’s Vineyard. Like all those people who visit Cape Cod in the summer, we find time on the Vineyard for that most enjoyable of activities: being tourists — beachgoing, swimming, summer fireworks, bike rides, farmers markets, and lazy afternoons reading on the screen porch. Also, afternoon shopping excursions on streets filled with cute shops.
On one such afternoon when I was in high school, my mother and I were wandering up and down the main street in Vineyard Haven. We had already gone to Bunch of Grapes (the bookstore that is always my goal no matter what I say I want to do in town) and done some clothes shopping (something we seemed to do only when on vacation). We decided to stop for a snack in a new little café called Blissed Out.
A step through the door transported us from the hot sidewalk to another world: cool, dim, smelling of wheatgrass, and decorated with numerous crystals and small buddha figurines — an atmosphere I later described to my mother as an “earthy, crunchy-granola, Birkenstock-wearing paradise.”
If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure about the place at first. The number of buddhas was overwhelming. I was in the market for a smoothie, and I wasn’t quite ready for that much spirituality on the side.
I looked at the menu: smoothies, juices, vegan wraps, energy bites. Everything was organic. The almond milk was homemade. They offered spirulina, bee pollen, chia, hemp seeds, smoothies with kale, spinach, coconut, ginger, turmeric, all kinds of fruit, nut butters, and cacao.
While I am not one to dive in on every superfood fad or stock my kitchen with every plant-based miracle powder on the grocery store shelves, I do sincerely like kale.
At the time, my experience of smoothies was mainly limited to the kid-friendly classic: strawberry-banana. To this day, it’s still a favorite, but clearly there was so much more out there in smoothieland.
I was ready to expand my horizons, and a good thing, too: this, friends, was my introduction to the Cacao Kapow! The smoothie I chose that day featured the shop’s homemade almond milk, dates, blueberries, spinach, banana, almond butter, and of course, cacao. A super-healthy chocolate smoothie? Yes, please.
The drink arrived looking like mud, but that didn’t scare me. It cooled me off and gave me a mood and energy boost for the rest of the afternoon without the drop that a sugary ice cream always produced. I was hooked.
The logical next step was to figure out how to replicate this delicacy in my own kitchen. I was going to be on the Vineyard for only a few more days, and I could not possibly wait until next year for another Cacao Kapow!
And so, with that and my related pursuit of the magical powder, cacao, I entered an era of smoothie making and blender adoration that I’m still in today.
Cacao is the raw, less-processed version of cocoa. The pods of Theobroma cacao (the cacao tree) go through many processing steps to get from a sticky pulp-and-seed-filled state to what we know as chocolate. Cacao preserves more of the plant’s original nutrients. Some people find it bitter, but I love the deep chocolatey taste it adds to my smoothies and baked goods.
A couple of other smoothie tips: if you don’t have nut milk on hand, just use water and add a tablespoon per cup of your favorite nut butter to the blender along with the other ingredients.
Bananas give smoothies a creamy texture and satisfying sweetness. Get some extra bananas at the store and let them get spotty, then peel, break into chunks, and freeze. I try to keep a bag of frozen banana chunks in my freezer all summer long. The sweetness of an overripe banana is enough that I usually don’t need to add dates or other sweeteners.
Hemp seeds are full of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. They get creamy when blended and have a mild flavor that won’t overwhelm the drink. I like to stir them into oatmeal or sprinkle some on top of salads as well.
Don’t be afraid to add spices, herbs, and extracts to your smoothies. Some favorites are vanilla, turmeric, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Always add a pinch of salt to the mix to enhance the flavors. Using fresh mint from the garden in a smoothie is, to my mind, the beginning of summer.
You’ll notice that many of the quantities in these recipes are not precise. Think of these less as recipes and more as guidelines you can adjust to taste. Each one serves one generously, or two for a small snack. Add all your ingredients plus two large ice cubes and a pinch of salt to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and savor.
I always think a smoothie tastes better with a straw (make that a paper or reusable version, please).
ANT’S CACAO KAPOW!
1¼ cup almond milk
Handful of fresh spinach
½ cup frozen blueberries
4 chunks frozen banana (about one banana’s worth)
1-2 Tbsp. hemp seeds
1 heaping Tbsp. cacao powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean powder
STRAWBERRY BANANA
1¼ cup cashew milk
6 frozen strawberries
4 chunks frozen banana (about one banana’s worth)
1 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean powder
Small handful of fresh mint
1-2 Tbsp. hemp seeds
GREEN JOY
1¼ cup apple juice
Generous handful of fresh kale
4 chunks frozen banana (about one banana’s worth)
½-inch chunk fresh grated ginger, or to taste
1 Tbsp. cashew butter
Juice of ½ lemon
1-2 Tbsp. hemp seeds
