Avocado Smoothie

Avocado smoothies are popular in Hawaii (where generous avocado trees abound!) Blend avocados with lime, milk, and sweetened condensed milk for a lush treat ^_^

Homemade avocado smoothie, recipe at the bottom of this post

A fresh avocado smoothie is a happy, joyful thing. It's both buttery and rich, somehow indulgent and healthy at the same time.

Avocado Smoothie

Some smoothies feature avocado as just one of many ingredients. But with an Avocado Smoothie, perfectly ripe avocados are the shining star.

Avocado is the only fruit element of an Avocado Smoothie. All the other ingredients of the smoothie (typically milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice) exist to support and highlight the creamy texture and soft sweetness of the avocado.

Note: if you're looking for a smoothie where it's avocado plus another fruit, try our soursop smoothie ^_^

I grew up drinking avocado smoothies, and it's a treat we still enjoy weekly in Hawaii. There is a happy abundance of local avocado trees everywhere, and our markets, restaurants, and juice shops use them brilliantly. Avocados in Hawaii are remarkably buttery and can't be beat.

An avocado smoothie is quite filling and I consider it as half a lunch. So a complete lunch would be one avocado smoothie (with boba) and one Spam musubi. Such delight!

All you need is avocado, lime, milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice!

Vietnamese Avocado Smoothie

The kind of avocado smoothie we find most commonly in Hawaii is Vietnamese Avocado Smoothie (Sinh Tố Bơ). You won't find these smoothies at the hip and trendy spots. The kind of avocado smoothies we love are found in Chinatown and/or at smoothie shops run by Chinese or Vietnamese.

What make this smoothie Vietnamese? The inclusion of sweetened condensed milk (you usually see this Longevity brand of sweetened condensed milk behind the counter). The smoothie is sold by one of these three names:

• Avocado Smoothie
• Avocado Shake
• Avocado Milkshake

They are all the same thing, different shops just give it different names (and no one actually uses the word "Vietnamese" in the smoothie name).

One thing to keep in mind: when we say smoothie, people automatically assume health food. But an avocado smoothie, with generous pours of sweetened condensed milk, is more like pleasure food. So much pleasure.

P.S. If you blend in coffee and drizzle chocolate syrup into the glass, it then becomes an Indonesian Avocado Smoothie/Milkshake (Es Alpukat). That is also a wonderful treat.

Avocado (and mango) smoothies from Thang's

Avocado Smoothie In Hawaii

My favorite avocado smoothie in Hawaii is at Thang’s French Coffee & Bubble Tea (everyone just calls it Thang's). The original Thang's was in Chinatown, but the owners sold that location and opened a new one at 1286 Kalani Street (inside City Square Shopping Center). That's the one we go to.

I love Thang's so much, we did a whole post on it here. Thang's speciality? Tropical and local fruits. Mango smoothies, durian smoothies, soursop smoothies, etc. They also make really good Chè (Vietnamese tapioca desserts like this). And of course, avocado smoothies! They make it Vietnamese style with lots of condensed milk. $.50 to add boba, well worth it.

It's thick and lush, and the best sips are the ones that capture a boba or two ^_^

Avocado Smoothie recipe from The Boba Book 

The Boba Book

I spent my whole life buying avocado smoothies (so many, so often, frequently encouraged by my mom who loves avocado smoothies even more than I do), but never thought about making it at home until my husband Bin and his co-founder Andrew aka the Boba Guys, created The Boba Book.

Bin promised there would be an avocado smoothie recipe in the book, and I was very, very excited.

(There is also a recipe for POG which stands for passion fruit-orange-guava, and another for a li hing drink. We will cover both in another post!)

The book just came out last month, hope you will take a look ^_^

The Boba Book: Bubble Tea and Beyond

Photo Credit: amazon.com

The Boba Book (by Boba Guys!) is full of great drink recipes ranging from Avocado Smoothie to Classic Milk Tea and the famous Strawberry Matcha Latte. Don't missing the section with recipes for drink toppings like boba and mango pudding ^_^

Get it on Amazon.com

The Boba Book has thoughtful and very doable recipes (I can confirm they did a ton of research and testing), including one for Avocado Smoothie.

The recipe blends ripe avocados with lime juice, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice. Pour everything into the blender. Blend and drink! Simple and straightforward.

It's the classic Vietnamese Avocado Smoothie, plus a touch of lime to give a bright lift. This smoothie is rich enough to be dessert and a real treat with boba.

I love the drink as is, but you can also try different variations:

• Replace the whole milk with oat milk (or any other type of milk, including homemade Soy Milk)
• Avocado smoothies are rich by default. To "lighten" the smoothie, increase the amount of milk and/or ice.
• Blend in other fruits (think soursop, blueberries, bananas), and even chocolate.
• Can substitute 2-3 dates for the sweetened condensed milk.
• Lime juice gives the creamy smoothie a citrusy brightness. If you want to make it classic Vietnamese style, leave out the lime juice.
• Our go-to topping for avocado smoothie is boba.

Drink while cold! It's thick enough to "drink" with a spoon.

Avocado Smoothie Recipe

Avocado recipe from The Boba Book below, hope you enjoy ^_^