Dropping off I-80 into Emeryville, the voices say “turn right, go to Starbucks” — well, that was odd, you know I already had my coffee at home so why bother, right? Well, I do like their strangely re-heated breakfast sandwiches so off I went. Hoping for a tasty egg, ham, and cheese on a english muffin.

There, written on the chalkboard was this new thing, Vivanno. Hmm, I think Starbucks is getting into Jamba territory, but may as well try the thing. I asked the cashier what they were, he explained there was a banana-chocolate one and a mango-orange one, which also had banana by the way, along with some other goodness like protien and what not.

“What not”

Ah, geez, ok here’s a link:
Vivano(tm) nourishing blends

That’s Orange Mango Banana with a whole banana, blended with Starbucks recipe “Naked” Juice, protien and fiber powder and 2% or whatever milk you want.

Then there’s the Banana Chocolate made much the same way except mocha sauce instead of the mango.

Either of these are thrown in a blender like any good frapp but without the whipped topping or other sprinkly bits and syrups.

So, yeh the guy was going to have me sign some sort of waiver but decided he’d just give me the drink for free as well a coupon to come back the same day after 2pm and get any Grande cold one for 2 bucks. Sweet!

“Sweet”

That’s one thing this drink was not overly sweet, good job Starbucks! It actually tasted like mango, orange, and banana like you’d expect, and none of that chalky gross protein taste like Jamba has. In the course of typing this in I’ve gulped down most of the drink and ate my breakfast sandwich already I say give it a go, I have no idea how much they cost but if you like this sort of smoothie (which, essentially, it is) then cool.

Some other fun facts. The container is plastic, but it’s made greener now 15% less plastic, 45% less carbon emissions to make it. More info here.

Watching your weight or whatever?

“Whatever”

The chocolate one has 270 calories, 21g protein and 6g of fiber, while the mango has 250 calories, 16g of protein and 5g of fiber. Tasty. Feels healthy. The mango has 32g of sugar but caffeine, and the chocolate, well it has 28g of sugar and there’s a bit of caffeine in that one. They have 120 and 170mg sodium respectively, though I gather we can thank the banana for most of that content. More than you want to know probably. Cheers.