One of the things that I miss most about living in New York was being able to pick up juice or smoothies while on the go. I’ve been drooling over the Instagram feeds of my favorite juice brands and daydreaming about my favorite small juice shop near my old office.
I have been backpacking across Africa for more than five months now, and I’ve learned to jump on fresh juice or smoothies whenever I have encountered them. There have been some great drinks along the way — a vegetable juice in Namibia, a carrot juice in Tanzania, a tropical fruit smoothie in Uganda — but, sadly, those occasions have been few and far between.
Until, that is, we got to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has a very strong cafe culture, and Ethiopian cities have plenty of places to sit and have a drink while you watch the world go by. Coffee drinks are understandably very popular at these places, and, while I love coffee , its the fruit juices that have me swooning.
And not just any fruit juices. There’s this thing called mixed juice. Behold:
As you can probably tell from the picture, despite the name, a mixed juice is more smoothie than juice. The layers, which are actually made of pureed (rather than juiced) fruit, are thick enough to remain separate. Flavors of mixed juices may vary by location (the pictured drink is strawberry, avocado, guava, and papaya, but mango is often used in place of strawberry), and you can always elect to have a drink concocted of one or two of your favorite flavors.
The drinks are made-to-order from fresh ingredients, and are a great pick-me-up after a day spent sightseeing or as a light lunch. Before I leave Ethiopia in a couple of weeks, I plan to have many more of these mixed juices!
What are your favorite health food finds from traveling? Let me know in the comments and I may feature it in a future post!