No blender, no problem: Evive Smoothie Cubes + A giveaway!

Evive Smoothie sent me the products in this post for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

They say the smoothie was invented when Chuck Norris interrogated a banana. But who has time to karate chop a bunch of fruits and vegetables when time is short and the need for something quick and healthy is big? Enter Evive Smoothie. The Montreal co. created frozen cubes of organic fruit, veggies and plant protein that you pop into a jar or a bottle, cover with liquid (water, almond milk, whatever you prefer) let sit for a few minutes and then shake up to make creamy, nutritious smoothies in a jiffy. No blender required! Evive Smoothie sent me their eight flavours to try. Let’s check them out.

You can buy the smoothies three ways:

• by subscription (choose 12 or 24 smoothies delivered every 1 to 6 weeks, about $3.75 to $4 per smoothie with free, frozen delivery in Ontario and Quebec)
• by gift box (order 2, 4 or 6 boxes of smoothies with 12 smoothies in each box, no commitment required, about $3.75 per smoothie)
• in store (sold in bags of three smoothies at more than 750 stores across Canada, about $10/bag)

If you order by mail, the smoothies arrive packed in dry ice and thermal insulation.

My first thought was “that’s a lot of packaging” but I see from the FAQs that it’s all made from recycled materials and can all be recycled.

One wheel of eight cubes make one smoothie, or you could use four for a smaller smoothie snack.

I tried this one first (Samourai) and it’s my favourite so far. It’s made with raspberries, strawberries, beets, chia seeds, dates, oranges, lemons, mint, plant-based protein (pea protein, chia protein, natural vanilla flavour, sea salt and stevia) and a vegetable blend (spinach, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms). But don’t worry — you won’t taste mushrooms, ha ha. Raspberry and strawberry are the strongest flavours in this blend.

I tried it in Evive’s Samurai chia pudding. IMHO regular water would work just as well, tho I did use maple water like the recipe called for. So, so good! I’m totally going to make it with some other flavours.

I only let mine set for about 10 minutes (ideally you’d give the chia seeds more time to gel) but you could make these well in advance if you were short on time.

This is the Azteque smoothie with cocoa, pears, strawberries, bananas and more. I only added a little liquid so it would be super thick and topped it with a wee scoop of strawberry banana nice cream and a sprinkle of nutty hemp hearts. The smoothie was much more tangy than I expected (I thought it would be more mellow like chocolate). Maybe I’ll try it again with coconut milk instead of water. That could be tasty. What would you mix it with?

The Touk-Touk blend is like sunshine in a bottle, with pineapple, mango, orange, coconut and other delicious goodness. I mixed mine with enough water to fill up the bottle so it was more like a pulp-y juice than a smoothie. Very energizing!

And this green beauty here is the Pure blend with mango, spinach, avocado, coconut cream, matcha tea and on and on. I like it with water, but Evive also has a scrumptious-looking recipe for molasses cookies that uses one of the Pure smoothie cubes.

I should mention that all of the smoothies are have less than 200 calories (130 to 180) and have 6 to 8 grams of protein. All eight of the flavours are available online, six in store.

I have four more flavours to try, but I’m really eager to hear what you think so I’m going to share this now. Are you a smoothie lover? Would you try Evive Smoothie Cubes?

GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to Evive Smoothie, one lucky try small things reader is going to win a delivery of all eight flavours (one of each, for eight smoothies in total, just like the rainbow-coloured smoothie stack in this post). 🙌 To enter, tell me what you like in your smoothies and follow Evive Smoothie on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram and tell me where you followed and your name there in the comments below. (This entry is mandatory.)

For another entry, follow try small things on Facebook, share this post (you’ll see the share buttons below) and tell me your Facebook name in the comments below. 

And feel free to tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet). Make sure you’re following try small things for your entry to count.

No blender, no problem: Evive Smoothie Cubes make quick, blender-free smoothies packed with plant-y of goodness. #Win a sampler from @trysmallthings https://wp.me/p4xBed-74i  CAN 4/2 #evivesmoothie #vegan

The contest is open to Canadian residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on April 2, 2019. The potential winner (chosen at random) must respond to prize notification within 48 hours and provide the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

That’s it, that’s all, smoothie lovers! Can’t wait to hear what you think!

Update April 4, 2019: Congratulations Rachel W!