To put it simply, I’m easily influenced and I love food. Put those things together and it’s no surprise that I’ve been meaning to try Hailey Beiber’s Erewhon smoothie for months. When a fellow Her Campus at UCLA member, Eileen, also expressed her desire to break her Erewhon virginity, we set out on a sunny Saturday morning to give their smoothies our honest unfiltered opinions.
- All Aboard The Big Blue Bus
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Having grown up in the suburbs of San Diego, public transportation in LA is confusing and overwhelming. For all my anxious travelers, Eileen and I decided to take the Big Blue Bus (specifically Route 18) because quite frankly, college life cannot fund two Uber rides and two smoothies in one day. Once you’re at the bus stop (Gayley SB & Strathmore FS), you get to relax until the stop, Montana WB & Stanford FS. You’ll have to walk about 10 minutes to get to Erewhon but it’s nothing compared to UCLA’s hilly campus. Do NOT miss your stop. We obviously did so we had to trek through a neighborhood with no phone service. Eileen claims it was “her sixth sense” that led us to Erewhon so make sure you’re not directionally challenged like I am.
- Empty Your Wallets
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The initial plan was to just get the Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze smoothie, which is a whopping $18. Some notable ingredients include collagen powder, sea moss, hyaluronic acid (I thought this was a serum from The Ordinary?), coconut cream and obviously strawberries. I got distracted and decided to order their new Organic Chocolate Milkshake ($8) which is only available this month! This milkshake has dates, almond butter, coconut cream, banana and biodynamic cacao.
- A Guilt Trip While You Sip
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Our thoughts on the strawberry smoothie mimic Hailey Beiber’s recent rise and fall: initially, it was going great (her glazed donut nails were cute), but then it fell flat.
Hannah: The first sip was, dare I say, worth $18. If we’re getting super specific, it tasted like a Surf City Squeeze strawberry banana smoothie you would get from an indoor mall in 2012. I’ll give the first sip a generous 9.5/10 and an 8.5/10 overall.
Eileen: Eileen notes that the first few sips were a 9/10 before she “realized we didn’t mix the syrup so [we were] getting all the sweet parts.” The rest of the smoothie was a decent 7/10. Eileen’s takeaway? Make it at home. She’s positive that she could “definitely make this [with her] Magic Bullet in [her] dorm for a total of $3.” I’ll update if she gives Erewhon a run for their money by selling her DIY smoothies on the Hill.
- Sip Some More
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As for the chocolate milkshake:
Hannah: If an In-N-Out milkshake is the crazy child of the family, Erewhon’s biodynamic chocolate milkshake is the organic-only, non-GMO, sugar-fearing almond mom that traumatized In-N-Out. While it actually tastes good, what you get is something reminiscent of chocolate with a lot of grittiness from the dates and almond butter. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to eat one of those LUSH face masks on display, this smoothie’s texture would be similar. I weirdly enjoyed it though; not too sweet with a slightly bitter ending from the cacao. 7/10.
Eileen: While she was “startled looking at the blackboard with the list of 17 ingredients,” Eileen was fully on board with the biodynamic cacao powder. Neither of us knew or cared to search up the definition of this magical powder but it seems like a marketing scheme. We fell for it! As Eileen states, she was “just happy to be converting [herself] to a healthier lifestyle.” She thought that the milkshake got better the more she sipped on it, so maybe it was an acquired taste.
- Retreat For The Real Treat
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Once we made it back to the Hill, we were both hungry so it’s safe to say that Erewhon’s smoothies are not particularly satiating. Because we firmly believe that happiness is the only goal we should work towards, we sealed our adventure with a filling lunch packed with refined sugar at De Neve. Yum!
While I can’t imagine how Erewhon smoothies could ever be a routine thing for anyone, I do think it was a fun experience. I have no regrets and if you’ve been thinking about trying it out, I would recommend you incorporate it into a day trip to Santa Monica. Overall, Eileen and I are glad we tried it and agree it was more worth it in terms of the experience, not the actual taste.