I’m sure there are some individuals who spring out of bed on a Monday morning, open their electric blinds, then carry out a comprehensive eighteen step skincare routine, before heading straight to the blender. Opening a cupboard to reveal a plethora of ‘superfood’ ingredients, they combine wellness elixirs with organic fruits and vegetables to whizz up a wondrous potion designed to facilitate optimum health.
Despite best intentions, I am not one of these individuals. There are certain barriers to me becoming a homemade juice and smoothie queen. Quite frankly, the tsunami of information surrounding what ‘should’ be in a smoothie is overwhelming, and I can’t afford to buy all the mystical compounds that will supposedly maximise my athletic performance and general wellbeing. Secondly, I am often running out of the door in the morning, with my earrings in my pocket ready to put in when I arrive at work. What’s more, I am chronically clumsy, so going anywhere near a blender is likely to leave my kitchen looking like a swamp.
All this being said, as an athlete and very active girlie, juices and smoothies are a fantastic way of getting in nutrients and energy whilst on the go.
Thankfully, there are ample options for grabbing a fruit-based beverage on the move. From Naked, to Mockingbird, to supermarket own brands, there is no shortage for choice of flavours, not to mention a vast spectrum of price points.
My personal favourite, however, is innocent.
The Fruity Foundations
Born in 1999 out of a ‘dream to make it easier for people to do themselves some good’, innocent launched their first smoothie; the classic strawberry and banana blend.
From a marketing perspective, the slogan was somewhat genius. By nature, we are drawn to solutions that make our lives easier, and with a growing awareness of the importance of nutrition beginning to snowball at the time, its easy to see how the brand gained momentum. They expanded overseas to Ireland in 2002, and also established their very own festival!
By the dawn of 2003, they had already began to prioritise initiatives that identified them as a socially responsible enterprise, rather than a corporate juicing machine, by giving just under half of their total profits to charities and struggling business. Once again, this would only have served to endear them further in the public eye – setting them up for success. Looking to ‘do good’ on a whole new level, innocent founded their own foundation in 2004.
Meanwhile, exciting things were brewing in terms of their product offering, with innocent launching 1L versions of their smoothies, the ‘super’ range, and also their kids range in 2004.
Over the next decade, more fresh favourites appeared on our shelves, and even after the founders moved on in 2012, innocent continued to flourish, now identifying themselves by the motto; ‘tastes good, does good’.
Now the leading juice brand in Germany, Austria and Denmark, its clear innocent executed their European expansion with masterful expertise. Nevertheless, they didn’t neglected sustainability, making strides with their environmentally conscious packaging, and becoming a B-Corp in 2018.
In 2024, their bubbles, shots and super smoothies generated around 14.8 million pounds, so what makes the products so good?
Just Fruit
Innocent are excellent at putting fruit and veg in the limelight. Their philosophy revolves around creating beverages without any added sugar, sweeteners, preservatives, or other nasties. What’s more, they are all ‘not from concentrate’.
This is a term thrown around pretty casually in sales ads and the like, but NFC juice genuinely is better than concentrated versions. The latter is heavily processed to remove water in order to reduce transportation costs, thus also removing some vitamins, fibre and antioxidants. Innocent juices and smoothies come straight from the fruit, eliciting maximum nutrition and flavour. Intriguingly, well known competitor ‘Naked’ do not hold themselves to the same stringent NFC standard…
Not only are innocent proud of their sustainably sourced fruit, but the breadth and variety of the plants they utilise results in flavour we consumers can’t resist. From tropical punches, to eerie blue spirulina juices, there really is something for everyone.
Taste aside, the idea of consuming 30 different plants is one sweeping the nutrition industry. In theory, hitting 30 plant points a week is a recipe for a diverse and healthy gut microbiome. Unfortunately, busy lives and tight budgets means some of us find this difficult, but in one little bottle of innocent, you can find around 7 of these points, putting you on track for a week of gut gains!
Long story short, a combination of minimal processing, expert ingredient sourcing, diligent recipe testing and mighty health benefits means innocent are creating blends we simply can’t resist.
Little Bottle, Big (athletic) Potential
‘Liquid calories’ are often demonised. From claims that they rot our teeth, to assumptions that drinking your nutrition will lead to overeating, many have been persuaded to steer clear of juices and smoothies altogether. Whilst a diet solely comprised of sugary sodas, sweetened coffees and heavily processed juice blends would be energy dense, nutrient poor, and categorically unhealthy, drinking something which contains carbohydrate isn’t necessarily bad! Furthermore, a ‘blueberries, peaches & apples’ smoothie, is a completely different ball game to a litre of coke.
Albeit there is an argument to say that too much juice can damage tooth enamel, and one shouldn’t rely purely on liquid for plant intake, over 60% of UK adults don’t get their 5-a-day. With time ever more scarce an asset, a sausage roll is often a much more accessible lunch than a homemade salad. Just 150ml of innocent product serves as one portion of your daily veg intake, so (in moderation) they can certainly act as a tool in helping us get the micronutrients so many of us lack. Subsequently, the odd bottle of smoothie could help many of us avoid the plethora of potential health issues that comes from inadequate vegetable consumption, including increased chronic disease risk, digestive issues, and a wealth of deficiencies…
To say athletes should prioritise a healthy diet certainly isn’t a groundbreaking statement. Additionally, many highly active individuals (myself included) find juices, smoothies and shakes an ideal way to pack in calories and nutrients their bodies are craving. This comes in particularly helpful prior to a a session or run when overloading the stomach is never a good idea!
One would be forgiven for assuming that anyone aiming to maximise physical potential would be well versed in getting ample micronutrients into their diet, but in truth they are often shunted in favour of grams of protein and carbs. These macros are without a doubt critical to fuelling and recovery, but slotting in a juice for the sake of vitamins rather than muscular growth can also be beneficial.
The importance of fruit and veg is elevated for athletes, as intense training schedules place additional demand on the body’s energy, recovery and immune systems which rely on them to thrive. For example, antioxidants such as Vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, are responsible for neutralising free radicals and easing oxidative stress. Intense exercise undoubtedly has the potential to cause this kind of stress (at least in the short term), thus increasing the demand for antioxidant vitamins in athletes.
Additionally, whilst nobody likes getting ill, when following a stringent training plan, having to take time off to nurse a cold or get over a virus is all the more frustrating. Consequently, having a bulletproof immune system can be a sportsperson’s greatest asset. Vitamins A, B6, B12, C and D are well known for keeping the immune system functioning as it should, and many athletes and non-athletes choose to supplement them. However, they can also be found in your daily juice…
Innocent’s ‘Berry Defence Super Smoothie’ is a perfect example of this. Aside from a delectable cocktail including apples, pears, raspberries and blackcurrants, it contains beetroot and pomegranate. Beetroot is believed to enhance blood flow to muscles, and pomegranate’s anti-inflammatory properties mean is could reduce muscle soreness, enhance endurance, and improve recovery! Not only this, but the smoothie contains Baobab – which has a stellar electrolyte content amongst other benefits – and added B vitamins and Niacin.
Long story short, in addition to having 11g of carbohydrate per 100ml, yet no added sugar, the Berry Defence could be an ideal way to top up vitamins and minerals for any hungry athlete in need of a post-training snack, and it could even help give them that extra performance edge.
Price vs Practicality
On average, a 250ml bottle of innocent cost around £2.50, with the larger 750ml versions being priced at £3.50. It goes without saying you are better off buying a bigger bottle, and decanting as you need it, but the question is are you better off than when blending your own?
The first barrier to blending is generally the most significant outlay; a juicer or blender. Whilst you can pick up one of these contraptions for around £30 from a supermarket, high end, quality, brands can cost upwards of £150. This is one of those situations where quality products do seem to perform better – and no one wants a lumpy kale smoothie.
Next on the agenda is sourcing produce. Frozen fruit, smoothie mixes and ‘wonky’ veg is a good place to start when blending on a budget, but even these items can add up. A frozen berry blend at £2.85 may provide the base for around 3-4 smoothies, yet this is just the basic ingredients, and you’re likely to want to add (potentially processed) apple juice for a fuller flavour. Furthermore, less fruit variety means less of those 30 plant points that bottles of innocent are so good at providing.
What’s more, whilst simple fruit and veg is relatively affordable and convenient to purchase, the ‘super’ ingredients in some of innocent’s particularly powerful juices are a little less accessible. Do you have spirulina in the cupboard and guava in the fruit bowl? A pouch of spirulina could cost you £10 and a trek to a health food store, thus the pre-made option becomes all the more appealing.
I won’t pretend to have done the maths, but over time it is potential cheaper to blend your own beverages, yet when the value of your time and convenience is factored in, the equation becomes a little harder to balance. What’s more, the variety of drinks innocent manufacture is so broad, with each carrying different benefits, it would be hard to argue one can create a more personalised drink at home.
Finally, the price of buying bottles juice for the planet must be considered. Inevitably, no plastic bottles would be the optimal solution, but innocent are doing their best to balance out the impact of their packaging and production. All their bottles are recyclable, and composed of 50% recycled plastic, 15% plant plastic, with an aim to cut single-use out completely in the future. Perhaps most ingeniously, there website details how the packaging can be recycled, making it significantly easier for consumers to go green.
The Final Crush
In essence, innocent are pretty funky as brands go. Genius, ultra-appealing marketing combined with minimally processed, healthful output is a sure-fire recipe for success. Add in their environmental, charitable and staff-wellbeing initiatives and it becomes hard to find their faults. On top of all this, what appeals to me most about innocent is their transparency; they offer tours of fruit towers, which further establishes the fact they have nothing to hide!
Sources:
The Sprightly Spud 
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