Just to rattle of some ingredients in a standard smoothie, one might use spinach or kale, perhaps some frozen blueberries, probably some banana and a healthy pour of almond milk to blend it all together.
Now, Blue Diamond, one of the most popular almond milk brands, has combined the latter two ingredients of this smoothie and created a new-to-the-market vegan milk alternative: Banana milk.
“We blended the smooth, creamy goodness of Unsweetened Almond Breeze Almond milk with real bananas for a deliciously satisfying treat that contains half a banana in every serving,” Blue Diamond explains on their website.
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Of course, there are a few other ingredients to the milk than just almonds, water and banana. Calcium carbonate, potassium citrate, natural flavors, sea salt, sunflower lecithin, glean gum, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2 and D-aplha-tocopherol (natural Vitamin E) are also listed on the banana milk's ingredients list.
That said, banana milk is actually pretty healthy. The standard one-cup serving clocks 80 calories, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 12 grams of sugar, two grams of protein, 150 milligrams of sodium and a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals. Of course, plain and unsweetened almond milk is probably a little healthier — it’s lighter in calories and sugar — but all sugar found in banana milk is naturally occurring from the bananas.
As for the flavor — because, as we know, banana-flavored things can be ... pretty gross — Cooking Light explains it to be creamier than other dairy-free milks and boasts a “pleasant (but not overwhelming) sweetness, and even tastes pretty good in coffee.”
Learn more about Blue Diamond’s banana almond milk here, including where you can find the product locally. Or, if you're more of the DIY-type, try making banana milk yourself with this recipe.