Mango Smoothie

It is super easy to make if you have the right tool. A reasonable portion just needs 1 mango (from Whole Foods), 1 to 1.5 cups of milk depending on the consistency you like, some plain greek yogurt or some honey depending on the flavor balance you prefer. Blend everything with a few normal-sized ice cubes.

💰 estimated to be around 3 dollars. Not cheap but cheaper than store-bought?

Flavor Profile

A little tanginess from the mango and the natural sweetness from the milk. If you like mango or milk, you will probably like this drink.

Unlike the store-bought smoothies, the sweetness of my smoothie is subtle and is probably around 20%-30% of store-bought.

What Matters?

1. The ability to cut the mango nicely and quickly. I used to first peel the mango, then slice the mango. But this method takes too much time. Often, when I want Mango smoothie, I want it either for breakfast or after work out---I don't want to wait five minutes to be able to drink it. Who has that time? So after some digging and experimenting, summer mangos at Whole Foods seem to be of high quality, smaller cores that I can just directly slice the mango in two big chunks, and then cube it.
2. Being able to adjust the acidity and sweetness based on the mango's profile. Now (I think) mango is in season in June MA and I can always get mangos with rich flavor easily. Depending on how the mango tastes, I will add some honey if the mango is on the acidity side and I will add some plain greek yogurt if the mango is too sweet.
3. Ice! I find the key to make this delicious drink is to make it super cold. The easiest way is to add (cold) milk and ice cubes and blend with the rest ingredient. The drink consistency sometimes comes out running and the mango flavor damper. I tried to freeze mango cubes and use them to replace the ice cubes---unfortunately this does not work for me. There are two key issues. Unless you have the patient to freeze the mango cubes spread out in a baking sheet or something, you will end up with a big chunk of iced mango; which my blender has so much trouble to blend. I don't blame it. The second issue is now I have to add a lot of milk to reach the consistency I like. The smoothies should be flow nicely from the blender to the cup. This might sound like a non-issue because I love milk but, it is a practical problem because of the "milk resource contention"---the milk resource is carefully provisioned at our household (because the brand we like has increased the price by 50% over the past couple of years) and is prioritized for making lattes.

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