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Who Claims to Have Invented the Smoothie?

There have been certain versions of what we call a smoothie throughout history, the oldest of which we have no idea who invented. Both Mediterranean and Eastern cultures created icy drinks with fruit puree. They could technically be called smoothies. But for the purpose of this article we will look at who invented the modern smoothie.

Commercial and widespread refrigeration didn’t happen until the 1930’s. The advent of home freezers created  a boom in the frozen food market. Companies like Bird’s Eye started mass freezing foods and delivering them to grocery stores. Naturally, people started experimenting with what they could accomplish with this newfound access to frozen foods.

It wasn’t until 1935, when Fred Osiusm perfected the existing blender design, that the invention became popular. Old Fred even remarked to a reporter at the time that his version of the blender would  “revolutionize American drinks”. He was very right.

People started putting anything and everything they could into blenders to see what frozen concoction they could come up with. By far the most successful item to arise from the newly minted marriage of blender and frozen food was the smoothie. Everyone was making them around roughly the same timeframe.

So, when the question is asked “who invented the modern smoothie?”, the only true answer is that it has no single inventor. It was a movement born out of an abundance of frozen fruit and a convienent new kitchen appliance.

Smoothies have since grown into a multi-billion dollar enterprise of which your friends here at Island Smoothie Cafe own just the tiniest of slivers. That’s OK because to us its not about the quantity of delicious smoothies we serve, its about quality.