Tropicana Juice/Food Bar, Melbourne

If you live in Melbourne, you would have no doubt walked or driven past this shop in the CBD that glowed a bright orange colour, not from neons but from fresh oranges hanging outside the shopfront. It has been like this ever since I can remember and that shop is Tropicana Juice/Food Bar.

I reminisce about my university days every now and then, Tropicana is one of the locations that I loved for its beautiful refreshing smoothies and juices as well as the fun and orangey decor. I always wondered just how often they have to change the oranges and whether they actually use them in the juices.

Not only do they use fresh oranges as decor, they also use fresh pineapples on the tables outside. It’s really quite amazing and I doubt you’ll find a second shop anywhere that stands out so much.

The last time Yuye and I visited, it was still winter, but that didn’t stop us from ordering smoothies. What we loved was the Oasis smoothie ($6.20 for large) which had rock melon, watermelon and pineapple. It was a perfect combination and ratio of flavours, making it tangy but not too sweet and totally melony. It would be such a perfect drink for these few scorching days (tomorrow is 34C!!!) although these hot days won’t last. We’re apparently back down to 17 on Thursday.

After ordering this smoothie, we laid our eyes on the specials board saying ‘South American Delight – The Best Juice On Earth, Top Secret – Money Back Guarantee’…our eyes grew wide and we looked at each other. Top secret ingredients and ‘best juice on earth’ just piqued our interest like nothing would. We just had to get it. No matter what. Even if it means we can’t finish our other smoothie.

I’m not sure if we were disappointed in the end. The juice was fantastic, it had strong and great flavours, although I can’t really pinpoint it to any particular fruit. We did find it a bit TOO sour so really wasn’t sure about the best juice on earth claim. But we obviously didn’t not like it either so no money back for us. In hindsight, I should have realised that juices are highly subjective to personal taste so best juice on earth for one might not be for another. The whole secretive factor though is a trap I fall into time and time again, I will never learn from my mistakes.

I never got to try Tropicana’s food so next time I will dine in while sucking on some delicious smoothies and hopefully, fingers crossed, I won’t fall into that ‘secret’ trap again. But with weather warming up, I can sense myself having serious juice and smoothie cravings.

Today’s post is short, as I’m really quite busy these few days. It’s almost 3am as I’m writing this and I have to get up to bake bake and bake some more for my friend’s wedding, then a lot of last minute important things to do before I head out for the bride’s hens and then the wedding is on Saturday!

Question time: Do you, like me, fall into the ‘secret’ trap? Does secret ingredients and crazy claims like ‘best blah blah on earth’ make you want to order something more?

Tropicana Juice/Food Bar
Phone: (03) 9670 3568
213 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000