Uber-expensive, influencer-backed Erewhon smoothies are a California specialty. Now, a new cafe is bringing a cheaper taste of the West Coast to West End.
Life Alive, a Massachusetts-based health food spot, opened its first District location in January, offering an extensive menu of organic, vegetarian foods and beverages. Among the array of noodle dishes, salads and drinks is the Blue Breeze smoothie ($9.75), a nod to Erewhon’s $19 Coconut Cloud Smoothie.
Beyond the famously health-crazed SoCal, smoothie and health food shops have also thrived in the District since the 2010s, including campus favorites, like South Block and vegan hotspot HipCityVeg. As D.C.’s green juice renaissance is seemingly dominated by ever-growing chains, Life Alive marks a new contributor to the trend.
A friend and I took a walk to the locale on a breezy spring day, looking to enjoy a cool, fun-flavored beverage to ring in the warming weather. Tucked beneath a sprawling office building in what was once a SoulCycle, the cafe boasts a flashy exterior with floor-to-ceiling windows and blood-orange paneling. Outside, four wooden tables with mustard-yellow umbrellas decorate the miniature patio, standing out against the corporate backdrop of the neighborhood.
Once we stepped inside, the bright orange exterior gave way to a muted red and brown interior. Warmly lit lamps hung from the ceiling, and wooden couches were topped with velvet, rust-colored cushions and plush pillows. The spacious cafe was fairly full, with interns typing away in business casual outfits and friends chatting at circular tables. Luckily, we were able to snatch a spot at the countertop.
There was even a separate, full-sized juice bar, rustic and wooden with a shiny maroon backsplash and a display of jarred and pickled fruits and vegetables, like oranges and cucumbers. Though the windows offered a full view of the city outside, the spot still felt like a cozy, warm-toned getaway from the fast pace and gray tones of D.C. life.
The cafe offers customers a free smoothie with their purchase when they sign up for a rewards account, which brought my total to $2.85 for the Blue Breeze smoothie and a boujee boxed water. My friend ordered the Tropical Sunrise smoothie, and we sat overlooking 23rd Street waiting for our free, fruity concoctions.
The sky-blue smoothie arrived in a can glass filled to the brim with dolloped clouds of coconut yogurt lining the sides, making the drink resemble an Instagrammable, picture-perfect backdrop. The smoothie blended mango, pineapple, banana, dates, coconut yogurt, chia and hemp seeds and blue spirulina into a natural, algae-based pigment — a color mirroring Erewhon’s bright blue look.
As a smoothie shop employee, I found the drink less thick than I’d prefer but still creamy, with the coconut yogurt standing out as the primary flavor and texture contributor. The dates and bananas added a bit of sweetness, but the drink was overall more tangy than sugary due to the yogurt, as the pineapple and mango were fairly indistinguishable. Despite the relatively mild flavor, a fruity, sweet-and-sour mixed flavor profile made the drink worth more than just a pretty photo op.
My friend said her beverage, made with mango, pineapple, cold-pressed turmeric, strawberry, dates and watermelon juice, was sweeter and thicker than mine. I tasted it and agreed — the watermelon flavor stood out, complimenting the strawberry and tangy pineapple.
Other smoothie shops tend to add sugars and juices to create sickeningly-sweet concoctions, taking away from the fortifying, nourishing nature of the drink. But Life Alive’s all-natural ingredients kept it refreshingly real.
As an East Coast native, I’ve never indulged in an Erewhon smoothie, so I can’t say how this one holds up to the real thing. But the charming, inviting cafe won’t intimidate you like I’d imagine the Los Angeles influencer hub would, and, if nothing else, this blue beverage won’t cost shoestring-budget college students over an hour of D.C. minimum wage.
