Pitaya Foods' 5 Smoothie Bowl Flavors Ranked

While working for an NGO in Nicaragua, Chuck Casanon's appetite flew towards the dragon fruit, also known as pitaya. In 2010, he founded a company to help the farmers back there, and to popularize the fruit in the U.S. Today, Pitaya Foods offers much more than just its namesake, including organic goodies such as açaí, passion fruit, jackfruit, and avocado. They're sold in superfruit frozen smoothie packs, powders, and bite-sized cubes, available on grocery store shelves.

In addition to introducing organic bite-sized pieces and organic maduros (ripe plantains) to its line-up this fall, Pitaya Foods has taken another natural next step forward, launching its new line of ready-to-eat Smoothie Bowls. The bowls, which are exclusively sold at Walmart, are organic, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, include a packet of delicious crunchy granola, and come in 5 different flavors. Under the names Clarity, Energy, Immunity, Inner Health, and Recover, these bowls sound like they do a lot more than just nourish the stomach, like create a state of mind.

The good folks at Pitaya Foods provided us with samples of the five Smoothie Bowls, which come in vibrantly beautiful boxes, and we took several loving spoonfuls of each. For your reading pleasure, we've ranked the bowls, to see which ones truly rise to the occasion and shine above the rest. Spoiler alert though: they're all awesome!

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Immunity

There's nothing like a ray of sunshine to get a day going, and Pitaya Foods' Immunity Smoothie Bowl certainly shines bright with its vivid yellow exterior. Its interior is a meld of passion fruit, mango, and pineapple, which comes together as almost too sweet of a treat. Strangely so, because it's the one bowl out of the five that has the lowest amount of sugar, landing at 17 grams before adding any topping. Full of antioxidants and vitamin C, there's a lot here to like, but it's almost too tall of an order to tackle in the morning. It feels more at home as a mixer with tequila or rum, in a glass with a tiny umbrella, slowly sipped upon while lying on a beach during a lazy afternoon.

It's not really fair that any of Pitaya Foods' super yummy Smoothie Bowls has to finish in last place, because you cannot go wrong with any of them (or all 5 at once like we did), but sadly, this mild dishonor is bestowed upon Immunity. It's all good though, as sometimes nice guys and nice bowls still finish last.

Recover

How do you feel about having dessert for breakfast and not feeling so guilty for doing so? Well, then give in to your indulgences and break open the Recover Smoothie Bowl box. With a grainy texture, Recover combines chocolate, banana, sunflower butter, and sea salt into a subdued-looking affair. It plays like a super fudgy fudgesicle disc with no wooden stick included.

This one has the most total sugars out of any of the Pitaya Foods' Smoothie Bowls at 26 grams, including 22 grams of added sugar, making up 44% of the FDA's daily recommended intake. So you may need a bit of time to recover from eating Recover. Still, it's a neat treat with 10 grams of plant-based protein and may be better suited for enjoying at the end of a day rather than at the beginning of it. What's more, since the banana component seems to be rather muted in Recover's flavor, we recommend cutting up some actual banana slices and covering them in this chocolatey concoction.

Inner Health

Pitaya Foods built its company's reputation on the dragon fruit and, for its Inner Health Smoothie Bowl, it's the star attraction — as both a main ingredient and in its presentation. The most aesthetically pleasing bowl in the entire line, the hot pink and black seeded frozen brick, also blended with mango purée and pineapple juice concentrate, melts in the mouth with a nice stable baseline taste.

Inner Health truly is healthy, chipping in the lowest calorie and total fat count out of all of Pitaya Foods' Smoothie Bowls, containing 8% of the recommended daily intake of potassium and 25% of the daily vitamin C you need. Additionally, it's jam-packed with probiotic bacteria, specifically the FDA-approved Bacillus subtilis. Per WebMD, this "good" bacteria may help your body digest and absorb all of those delicious nutrients.

Nothing too sweet, bitter, or tart here, as Inner Health works its magic as a middle-of-the-road smoothie bowl option, sure to satisfy any discerning palate. Not-so-oddly enough, that's where it landed in our Smoothie Bowl rankings — smack dab in the middle.

Energy

When it comes to healthy, organic, and fruity bowls, açaí bowls are usually the first to come to mind, and to dig into. Pitaya Foods' Energy Smoothie Bowl may not have açaí in its name but it's essentially an açaí bowl through and through, making it one eaters may easily gravitate towards as a top choice in this line-up.

While Energy may be one of the bowls highest in calories and in fat, it's also the lowest in sodium, and boasts plenty of vitamin B12 — although this probably doesn't make the bowl glow in the dark as it does in a cocktail. The same purple hue as Grimace from McDonalds, this bowl has a mild tart taste to it, with hints of blueberries, strawberries, and bananas seeping out in each bite. Energy, with its familiar look and flavors, is a solid way to start any day and start burning off those calories.

Clarity

While eating blue foods isn't a very common thing, it may not be best to judge the Clarity Smoothie Bowl by its color, which is reminiscent of the sea at a tropical beach, Blue Curaçao liqueur, or perhaps even the Cookie Monster. One won't have any color-adverse trepidations after giving Clarity a try though, as it's a blue velvety, creamy dream. It's actually pretty amazing how creamy it is considering, like the rest of the bowls, it's completely dairy-free. Clarity's highlighted contents are coconut, pineapple, and blue spirulina algae — often used as a dietary supplement. Neither of the two fruits leans heavily in the bowl, which allows for an almost indescribable flavor profile that warrants endless tastings to try and figure out what exactly it is.

This unique bowl will satisfy 20% of the daily value of one's vitamin C intake, and the product details explain it's loaded with MCTs. Short for medium-chain triglycerides, Healthline explains that these brain-boosting nutrients are found in coconut oil and may help increase cognitive function and enhance memory. It's unclear if the MCTs are the culprit here, but the Clarity bowl is unforgettable, and clearly is Pitya Foods' most super bowl. Clarity is perfect for any time of the day, and will both clear the mind, as well put your head in the clouds, dreaming of more.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.