I rarely give second chances to businesses that I give 1 star to, but after visiting two different…read moreNekter Juice Bars last year in the Lone Star State, I felt I had to give this location a second chance when all the stars aligned late last year. I was in the area and wanted to stop by 2nd and PCH to see how things changed since the last time I was there. I was originally planning to go to the Traffic Circle location, but suddenly remembered there was this location on the other side of PCH.
I'm a part of Nekter's rewards program, and I got an email saying that my points would have expired real soon. I had just enough points to redeem a $3 small smoothie. The small smoothie is 16 oz, and if I wanted to get it for free, I would have had to spend just as many dollars plus twice as many cents to do so. I'm not going to do that just for $3 savings, so I chose to get my $3 smoothie here.
When I arrived on Friday after lunch, there were a couple of girls in line, who were having quite the conversation with the cashier. Luckily, I didn't have to wait that long, and it did give me additional time to decide which smoothie I wanted. When it was my turn to order, the cashier greeted me, and I asked if there was any smoothie that I couldn't get using my reward. She simply mentioned that as long as it was offered in the "Small" size, it would work.
I asked about Coffee Kickstart since it was early afternoon, a time when I start to feel drowsy and need that extra kick of caffeine to get me through the day. At first, the cashier said she'd only recommend it for the flavor, and then I was trying to look for other options that would give me that boost I needed. She eventually said that the Coffee Kickstart would be a good choice for that, and so I chose the Coffee Kickstart.
Understandably, they did not have the Aloha Smoothie on their menu, but I'm sure if I asked, they would have been as confused as you are if you are still reading this review.
She then asked me if I wanted whey or pea protein. Whey is a dairy base, but pea is vegan. As much as I love saying "no way!", I had to say "yes way" to whey lol.
It took a few minutes for her to prepare my drink with a glove in one hand, but not the other. After I got my drink, I grabbed a straw from the pickup counter and headed back to my car.
While the Coffee Kickstart did give me that boost to get me through the rest of that afternoon, I was disappointed that it didn't have the consistency of a smoothie until I reached the bottom half of the cup. The first half was pretty watered down, and it felt like I was drinking a regular iced coffee. However, it tasted more like a smoothie afterwards, but too little too late I guess. I had just finished the smoothie by the time I got back home.
Was the smoothie bad? No, but it's not something I would get again, even if I were looking for that extra caffeine kick. I probably should have gone with the Health Nut or the PB Mocha instead, but even so, with how watered down my drinks have been from here, who knows how watery those other protein smoothies would be?
My experience here was definitely better than 1 star, so I'll give 1 more star to my original rating, but that's it, unfortunately. Unless all the *other* stars magically align again, I probably won't be back here, especially since it's in an area I'm not in frequently, and I *still* don't see a Yelp check-in offer.