Fresh vs. Frozen Bananas – The Secret To The Best Acai Bowl
Today we’re calling into question all acai bowls, everywhere. What makes a good acai bowl, good? We know one things for sure; blending with premium and organic Grade A Especial acai is a must. Can your acai say that? If it’s not Tambor, we’re betting not. But what else is necessary to make the best acai bowl?
We bring you the case study of the week: Fresh Bananas vs. Frozen Bananas
You might be thinking, could one ingredient either fresh or frozen really make a difference? We’re here to tell you, YES! And to affirm our claim we’ve done a little comparison so you can visualize it. We’re working with local apple bananas today, though variety doesn’t matter over all.
First up, you’ll see our fresh banana blended. The consistency is textured, warm, and lumpy. And in our minds, these are three things an acai bowl should never be.
Second you’ll see our blend of a frozen banana. Already a huge difference, right? It’s consistency is thick, creamy, and smooth. Everything we hope our acai bowls will be.
It’s a little hard to show the difference once the frozen acai is blended in, though we will note a couple main differences between that acai bowl made with fresh bananas vs. frozen bananas.
1. Consistency – The fresh banana acai bowl was airier where as the frozen banana bowl was dense and creamy.
2. Temperature – The fresh banana acai bowl just wasn’t quite as cold and began to puddle as it was spooned out, where as the frozen banana bowl was notably colder and went into our bowl in a more solid blended sorbet like medium. The frozen banana bowl stayed in this state a lot longer than the fresh banana bowl did, staying firmer longer as we ate away at it.
*Fresh banana bowl blend above
*Frozen banana bowl blend above
We want to hear your thoughts! Let us know your opinion of blending with fresh or frozen bananas.
*We do have a tip if you haven’t had a chance to freeze your bananas before hand: don’t add any liquid into your blend. The fresh soft banana is typically enough to get your blender going and keep the acai at a thicker consistency.