Photo: Elizabeth Henkenius (Shutterstock)
Smoothies should be smooth. Beyond that, there’s a sliding scale, and you need to know how thick or thin you like your drink. Know thyself and you’ll be able to wing it with recipes, nailing the perfect consistency time and again. This will also help you decide the quality of blender you’ll need. Concrete-style smoothies will use nearly no liquid ingredients but, because of this, will require a powerful blender that can catch all of the ingredients without the lubrication of liquid. Use skyr, or greek yogurt as your primary base for a smoothie that nearly stands up on its own. For juice-like thinness, add plenty of liquid ingredients. This consistency can get away with a weaker blender, but be aware that leafy greens might not chop well if they can surf around the blades in a lot of liquid. To improve chopping and texture, only add half of the liquid ingredients first. Blend until the fruit and vegetable fibers are smooth, then slowly add in the rest of your liquid.
