Quick Chop! The Plantation Juice Co

The Plantation Juice Co - Adelaide Central Markets, Gouger Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Being the smoothie and juice lovers we are, we were happy to learn when a new juice bar opened in the Adelaide Central Markets, which is only a short walk from work. Plantation Juice Co looks like a cool beach hut (minus the sand!) amidst the other regular traders and definitely stands out when searching for it for our first visit!

Today we order a Nutella smoothie and also decide to try a "nourish" or smoothie bowl for the first time - the Peanut Butter Cup with almond milk. We pull up a stool at the beach hut bar and watch our orders being prepared. It's very busy in the bar with orders being called out, blenders blending and smoothie artists decorating the bowls with nutritious toppings. Our only concern was noticing our artist making the smoothie bowl had one disposable glove on her left hand with her gloveless right hand touching the sliced strawberries and dipping her hand in the containers for coconut and buckini's to sprinkle on the smoothie bowl. We would have preferred her gloved up hand to be undertaking these tasks rather than her bare hand which I assumed was bare for monetary exchange.

Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie Bowl $13

So we close our eyes and when the nourish bowl and smoothie arrive we soon forget about our germaphobic ways as the nourish bowl is exquistely presented with a variety of colourful and textural toppings in a wooden love heart shaped bowl.

Mixing the toppings around in the smoothie we notice that the smoothie consistency is quite thin and runny. As we've not had a smoothie bowl before we assumed that it would be of a thicker consistency (think Acai bowl) than a regular smoothie as you are eating (drinking) it with a spoon...but this is not so here.

The flavours are great with more of a chocolate presence rather than the advertised peanut butter, with the banana and dates providing the sweetness. The strawberries on top give it some freshness and the buckini's, coconut and chia seeds give that textural crunch this dish needs. We found the smoothie bowl to be more substantial with the included additional toppings than sipping on a standard smoothie, so much so that we weren't able to finish it, which also demonstrates the generous serving size. Although, we did feel it would have been easier to drink it from the bowl with a straw...!!

Smoothie Bowl (front) Smoothie (back)

The nutella smoothie is made with hazelnuts, cacao, banana, dates and vanilla. As a smoothie, it's pleasant, well blitzed, coming out thick and creamy. It didn't scream nutella however. So we do wonder if something can be called nutella just because hazelnut and cacao is used.

Overall Plantation Juice Co is a great addition to the central markets and offers a great variety of healthy smoothies, juices and smoothie bowls that are all gluten and refined sugar free. We are just not convinced on a smoothie bowl as yet but we'll be back for a regular smoothie or two for sure!