Try wild blueberries rather than cultivated blueberries, if you aren’t doing that already.

I use fresh or frozen strawberries or raspberries in mine - even though neither are my favorite berry. If trying to limit calories, my smoothies wouldn't work for you. I add a scoop of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream to up the calories....

I think most flavors are blunted in cold and frozen preparations. Off topic a bit, I've been freezing protein shakes and spinning them in my Ninja Creami after adding 1/4 cup of hot water and 1/4 cup of dairy. It's my new favorite concoction.

No. they seem to be little more to me than needlessly concentrated calories.

If you like the ingredients, eat them separately (and in moderation) to enjoy the flavors.

I suggest that you use an assortment of frozen fruit to up the flavor. Pineapple and peaches add so much zesty flavor, for example. I also add half of a tart apple; my choice is Macintosh, and a slice of fresh lemon. Without those last two ingredients, my dark green ”sludgies”, as I call them, are bland and lackluster.

I use a lot of dark greens in mine. They are basically a delivery system for phytonutrients as far as I am concerned. Fresh baby greens by the handful. I buy a fresh pineapple every week so that I can add a few chunks to the concoction every day.

Daily same thing could also blunt your flavor receptors. Changing up the flavors could help with that. I don't use frozen fruit, but we have year round produce here. Honey can mask other flavors—in smoothies it's often there for the spoon of local honey against allergens thing (which doesn't work here where there're way too many for honey to effect, so I take their word for it that it works in less diverse places). Sugar can bump up flavor since it's a basic recptor on your tongue. A spoonful would do it. I don't know if that would actually change things for you though.

Blueberries are quite variable, The best are blow your mind flavor bombs. Usually in the same 6 oz. box, IME, are plenty that taste kind of neutral or slightly sweet or slightly sour, but not much of blueberry-ness. Bananas on that perfect day when the peel is just a bit green and the flesh is still quite firm, when they haven't started to go sugary, have intense and delicious banana flavor. Same bunch a little greener are a bit tart and firm, a little yellower are sweet and softer, but neither side of perfect are all that banana-flavor-y. Out shouting grain and nut flavors would take a lot! I like to make oatmeal with oat milk, but blueberries get lost in it.

Try some dried fruit, maybe, or low sugar jam like St. Dalfour. The flavor is usually more intense.

I'm with Elmer on this one. Get the fibre as well as the sugar by eating the fruit as is. Eat a yoghurt or some cheese if you feel you need more protein.

Yogurt and cheese aren't going to provide enough protein as protein powder will, not without adding several hundred extra calories.......I would need 5 ounces of cheese (about 600 calories) to make up the protein in my smoothie, which has the minimum protein level I'm aiming for per meal (about 33g).

I could just drink my protein powder in water, but I really dislike it that way (it is flavourless, but it makes it thicker, so it tastes gross) - that's why I add fruit. The fibre in the fruit is still there, even when it's blended up into a smoothie; I add more with oats, because I've found I need more fibre as I increase my protein intake.

I'll try changing up the flavours - I might be "taste blind" from frequent exposure.

There are flavored whey protein powders. I use frozen strawberry slices (1.5 cups) 2 scoops of strawberry whey, a tablespoon of Splenda and some cold water, and if I have it a big spoonful of plain Greek yogurt, and after blending well I have a fabulous thick strawberry shake. I have several other whey flavors I do not add fruit to, but instead use small ice cubes to achieve the shake thickness, along with the Splenda: chocolate, vanilla ice cream, and cookie. The flavors only have 4 or 5 g of carbs per scoop.

more fibre

A small amount of xanthan gum will further thicken the shake and provide some bulk.

We buy fruit yogurt drinks at the Grocery Outlet store near us. I mostly drink mango or coconut/pinapple, but Kevin likes strawberry and guava. We both like mango, and so we buy more of those. They come in individual sizes and also in large bottles that have about four servings.

I've made smoothies in the past, but I got tired of them. Most of mine were banana chocolate, and I would add a tablespoon of Kahlua to intensify the chocolate flavor, in addition to the cocoa I added. I've never liked adding greens or oats to them - I eat those separately, if I think I need them.

Try adding some Cassis to intensify the blueberry flavor. Cassis is made from black currents, but it will help the blueberry flavor. I might add a bit of vanilla for the banana flavor.

I agree with Rhizo on using fresh pineapple. I would make a ’green shake’ when I was still working and used fresh spinach and kale plus fresh pineapple and some juice, sometimes a mint leaf, coconut water (for the hydration), a squirt of honey (just because), and either a few slices of peaches or bananas I had drozen from fresh. You can add chia or flax seed or protein powder if you like too. I didn’t do this every day, more like every other day as it was boring to do that imo. I would switch off with overnight oatmeal (made with plain yogurt and almond or oat milk, adding the fruit in the mornings.

My biggest dread is having a day come where I would have to be on a liquid diet. I need texture. I need food I can chew. I will even stop eating ice cream if it starts to melt. I don't understand drinking my food. To miss out on all the individual flavors and textures is not for me. I don't need protein powders because I eat a lot of red meat, white meat and fish.

I maybe have made 4 frappes or milkshakes in my life.

I love fruits, veggies, ice cream sometimes, juices

but never feel the desire to whir them in a blender.

I used to make fruit smoothies in a blender about half dozen times but now only use the blender for watermelon juice and store it in the fridge to drink within a day. The juice extractor on the other hand is becoming handy to make quick vegetable soup stock of apples, celery, daikon…

No smoothies for me either, I just don't like the texture. I also don't care for milk shakes and those boba bubble things are just disgusting, although the grandkids love them.

I do get plenty of protein without needing supplements since we farm, my husband hunts and we have chickens for eggs.

Annie

I'm not a smoothie person myself but my better half is. He needs the extra protein because, as is not uncommon, older people sometimes do not absorb protein all that well even with a good, balanced diet. He'll take a fresh mango and/or bananas, or berries, add the protein powder, yoghurt, milk, some honey, and blend the lot. The fibre and sugar content of fresh fruit isn't going to change just because it's been through a blender, and it makes the protein powder palatable.

I wonder if the protein powder is what is muddling the taste - maybe include ginger and/or turmeric and some lemon or lime juice & zest to sort of mask it?

Or lose the protein powder and eat lentils after your fiber-rich smoothie?

Anyway, thanks for the thread, makes me want to eat more healthy and pull out my blender, so many lovely greens right now !