Drum corps leads us on many adventures and lets us sample new things all over the place. Be it the fine dining in Washington D.C., the water that tasted like sulfur in Orlando, Fla., or my newest experience, the Jamba Juice refreshment chain. Generally when I go to camps, I end up staying in a hotel on Sunday night, and I'll catch an early flight back to Iowa in the morning. Well, this last month, I stayed with a friend at the hotel Sunday night and we had the chance to go out and see what the San Jose area had to offer. For the last year or so many of my friends have raved on and on about Jamba Juice and how great it is. Because I am from the sheltered state of Iowa, I had never heard of Jamba Juice, so it was something I've wanted to try for a very long time. While we were out on that Sunday evening, we happened to stop at a mall for a bit. As we wondered around the mall, we found the food court, and right in front of me was a Jamba Juice. I was beyond ecstatic to finally see one. So after I jumped in the line of waiting customers, I had to decide what to order. Being the avid strawberry fan that I am, I found the need to order a strawberry smoothie. After I got my smoothie I was very happily surprised. All of my friends had been right -- Jamba Juice was pure bliss. Immediately I was hooked, and I loved the taste. After I arrived home from California, I was already craving a Jamba Juice, and with my luck I have found that the closest one is either in Minnesota or Illinois. That doesn't help me. For the past two weeks, I have been contemplating how to recreate the sensation that my mouth had. While I was wandering the Internet, as I do every day, I found Jamba Juice's Web site and had a look around. There was a page containing the ingredients to all of their products. I was so happy that I had to print off what was in the strawberry smoothie.

Yesterday I finally got motivated enough to wander out into the brutal winter weather (I'm not a fan of the cold at all) to try and find the ingredients. I got in my car and headed off to the grocery store. It didn't take me long to find the ingredients: Frozen strawberries, frozen peaches, lime sherbet, white grape juice, lemon juice and ice. I rushed home as fast as I could, because I wanted to try so diligently to find the perfect combination of ingredients.

After I got home I started right in on my project. Once I had all of the ingredients in the blender, I realized just how big of a mess I was making, which is yet another reason I shouldn't be in the kitchen. After about 30 minutes of adding ingredients to try and find the perfect balance, I gave up. I realized that I probably wasn't going to find it this time. So after a bit of pouring I had two glasses of a strawberry smoothie. One went right to my stomach and the other went to the freezer.

I'm thankful though that I have camp this weekend, as the show music is amazing this year. And hopefully after camp I can find a Jamba Juice close to the hotel so I can once again reunite my mouth with that wonderful sensation.
 
2004 columns by Joe Smith: In Praise of sponsors Loving the Phantom of the Opera A Picture is worth 1,000 words Dealing with tour withdrawal The Busy musical season A Hectic drum corps week Right where you left off The Other side Preparing for tour Getting away from it all: Report from a Colts' camp Strong winds, early sunset: Report from a Colts' camp Meet the visual tech New challenges in Dubuque My favorite place: Alfred, N.Y. Freezing rain, full ensemble: A report from Dubuque Discussing drum corps over the holidays