Zola Acai Juice

Acai Smoothie

I recently had the opportunity to try 7 of Zola’s products: 3 acai juice blends and 4 acai smoothies. To skip the background on Zola, click here to go straight to the product reviews. By the way, I get nothing out of reviewing these products, not even if you follow my links to buy some. This is just for Project Swole readers’ information.

The philosophy of Zola is to bring highly delicious and nutritious Brazilian superfruits to consumers, and that is what they do best.

Zola has an agreement with certain Brazilian communities which allow them full access to the best, freshest acai that Brazil has to offer. Because of this agreement they never have to buy acai on the open market, and they are able to give directly back to their partner communities in an effort to reduce poverty and preserve the habitat.

A recent article in Forbes magazine noted Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as one of the world’s happiest cities. It just so happens that Rio de Janeiro is one of the top producers of acai berries, and the people that live there have daily, cheap access to acai foods.

Could acai = happiness?

Zola’s Acai Berry Strategy

The Zola acai processing strategy is designed to maximize nutrition, taste, and safety of the fruit. They strive to use the purest ingredients and avoid all manual contact by humans.

Zola follows this step by step process for getting acai from the tree to your mouth:

• The acai berries are hand harvested and placed in baskets.
• The baskets are shipped to the acai processing plant by boats operated by locals.
• Acai berries are triple washed by clean, pure, filtered water.
• Once they are washed, the berries are never touched again by human hands.
• Once the acai pulp is stripped from the seeds, it is quickly frozen in large drums.
• This pulp is then shipped off to the US to make a variety of Zola products.

Zola Also Uses These Other Great Superfoods

Zola does not necessarily focus 100% of it’s efforts on acai either. There are a number of Amazonian fruits that are nutritionally superior to ordinary fruits like apples, oranges, and bannanas.

Zola likes these fruits too:

• Acerola - looks like a big potato and known as the “Pharmacy of the Amazon”
• Cupuaçu - the “Brazilian Cherry” contains 80 times the vitamin C of oranges
• Cajá - a small orange fruit with a tropical taste
• Graviola - a green spiky fruit that is said to have been cancer fighting potential than chemotherapy

My Zola Product Reviews

Zola has found a way to work several of these fruits into great tasting acai smoothie blends. I know they are great tasting because Zola sent me a sample of each of their 7 juices and smoothies, and every last one was oh so good.

The Zola acai smoothies are thick and tasty, but not chunky. You can taste the tart flavor of acai berry, which is great because most acai products taste like watered down sugary syrup. When you drink one of these smoothies you will know you are drinking a thick smoothie, and that you will be full when it’s gone.

Each smoothie has its own nutritional purpose, too.

Zola offers the following great acai smoothies:

• Immunity Smoothie – For immune system support, a blend of acerola, camu camu, and açaí which deliver antioxidants, vitamin C (415% DV), and bioflavonoids
• Energy Smoothie – A blend of exotic caja fruit and açaí using a boost of yerba mate, green tea and natural guaraná seed providing 80mg natural caffeine for sustained energy
• Superfood Smoothie – A green blend boost added to anti-aging cupuaçu, vitamin B packed graviola and açaí to naturally feed your body and soul
• Antioxidant Smoothie – Full of free-radical-fighting açaí berries and vitamin C packed acerola for a natural way to ensure your daily dose of antioxidants. Equal to 3 ½ servings of fruits and vegetables

I liked the Immunity, Energy, and Antioxidant Smoothies best.

Zola’s Energy Smoothie was like drinking a cup of coffee but with a fruity flavor rather than a bitter coffee flavor. It is a little bit too expensive to use in place of coffee all the time, but it sure can give a fruity energy boost to your day.

Zola’s Superfood Smoothie is their healthiest smoothie, but it doesn’t taste like a party in my mouth. I can drink it down, but I wouldn’t stock upon them and drink one every day. You can tell that it’s a green blend with plenty of hearty vegetable nutrition. Blah.

The Zola acai juices are also great! Each is blended with the flavors and nutrition of additional fruits, as well as important Omega-3 fats, antioxidants, amino acids, calcium, iron, and electrolytes. Organic Guarana is added to each bottle to help you maintain healthy energy levels.

Zola offers the following great acai juice blends:

• Acai Original – 100% pure acai juice, no added fruits, flavors, sugars, or fillers
• Acai with Blueberry – sweeter than pure acai, this is an antioxidant hurricane of berry flavors
• Acai with Pineapple – Brazilian pineapples are juicier and sweeter than most others

Zola’s Açaí with Blueberry Juice blend is the best tasting, but they are all very nice.

Zola’s Açaí Original Juice is probably the most bland of the three, but that’s because it’s 100% pure acai, which is really good for you.

Zola has also introduced a couple additional supplements, but I haven’t had a chance to try them. If you try the Zola Açaí Daily Wellness Shot or the Zola Açaí Berry Smoothie Mix please let me know how you like them.

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Here are some humorous links:

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Tags: acai, acai berries, acai berry juice, acai juice, Açaí Palm, Beverages, Fruit, green tea, Immune system, nutrition, Product Reviews, Rio de Janeiro, Supplements, zola, zola acai

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.