In today's fast-paced world, maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. Kencko emerges as a frontrunner in providing consumers with nutritious and convenient instant smoothie options. With the increasing focus on healthier lifestyles and sustainable food choices, Kencko has carved a niche for itself by offering a convenient way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into daily diets. But are Kencko's instant smoothies the real deal, or are they just another fad in the ever-growing health food market?
The Importance of Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They provide vital vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, reducing the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. They are also low in calories and fat, making them ideal for weight management.
Consuming organic and seasonal fruits and vegetables ensures you receive the most nutritional value while supporting a sustainable food system.
About Kencko
Kencko is dedicated to promoting a plant-rich diet and a healthier future for both people and the planet. Kencko aims to provide high-quality, nutritious plant-based foods, and to educate and support individuals in developing a healthier relationship with food and a more nourishing overall diet.
Founded by Tomás Froes, Kencko emerged from his personal health journey. After experiencing acute gastritis, Tomás shifted to a vegan diet rich in fruits and vegetables, which significantly improved his condition. He founded Kencko to address the global issue of fruit and vegetable waste while helping people consume more produce. Kencko employs freeze-drying technology to capture the nutrients of fresh produce in a shelf-stable form, helping reduce food waste and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable food system.
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Delivery and Packaging
Kencko prioritizes sustainability with its delivery and packaging. The smoothie mixes are shipped in compact, recyclable boxes, and the individual packets are made of compostable plant-based materials, ensuring that consumers can enjoy their nutrient-dense beverages guilt-free.
Kencko Certifications
Kencko has earned several certifications, reinforcing its commitment to quality and sustainability:
- Certified B Corporation
- Certified USDA Organic
- Certified EU Organic
The Science Behind Kencko
Kencko utilizes innovative techniques to preserve the nutritional value of organic fruits and vegetables. The process begins with flash-freezing fresh produce to retain essential nutrients, fiber, color, and flavor. This is followed by slow-drying to remove water content, creating a shelf-stable product without synthetic additives. The ingredients are then blended in small batches according to carefully crafted recipes, resulting in a delicious and nutrient-dense smoothie mix.
Kencko Nutrition Coach
Kencko offers a nutrition coaching program to help you kickstart healthy habits and develop a positive, guilt-free relationship with food without any restrictions. Led by Registered Dietitians, the courses cover topics like eating for heart health, blood sugar management, and healthy meal preparation.
Kencko Smoothies Review
Kencko Smoothies are designed to target specific goals, such as increased energy, sharper focus, or glowing skin. The best part about Kencko Smoothies is their versatility. You can enjoy them with chilled water, almond milk, or plant milk, blend them with protein powder for an extra boost, or even incorporate them into baking, ice cream, or cocktails.
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Key Features
- No refined or added sugars
- No artificial chemicals
- Free carbon-neutral shipping
- Compostable packaging
Pros
Kencko Smoothies use real, organic fruits and vegetables without any added artificial ingredients. By flash-freezing and then slow-drying fresh produce, they manage to retain the nutrients, fiber, color, and flavor in a convenient powder form. Each smoothie contains the equivalent of 2.5 cups of fresh produce. With different Kencko smoothie flavors possibilities are endless, allowing you to enjoy your extra servings of fruits and vegetables in a way that suits your personal preference. The taste is fantastic, and these organic smoothies are packed with essential plant nutrients, making them a delightful addition to mornings.
Cons
Some customers did not like certain flavors. Some reviewers mention a thin, juice-like consistency, persistent clumping and grit, an occasional bland flavor profile and a seedy, uneven mouthfeel.
How to Prepare Kencko Smoothies
To prepare a Kencko smoothie, pour your chosen liquid (chilled water, plant, or dairy milk) into a bottle up to the designated line. Next, add the contents of one smoothie packet. Securely close the shaker bottle and shake vigorously for several seconds to mix the ingredients. If you don't have a shaker bottle, you can prepare the smoothie in a glass by adding the powder and enough liquid to form a smooth paste, then gradually add 10oz of liquid as you stir. Alternatively, you can mix the powder in a blender along with your choice of fresh or frozen fruit, protein powder, etc. Most Kencko smoothie flavors work well with either your favorite almond milk or chilled water, but some may pair better with one option over the other.
Kencko Smoothie Flavors and Ingredients
Kencko fruits and veggie smoothies are available in different flavors.
- Chocolate Mints: A mix of cacao, banana, blueberry, peach, sweet potato, carrot, and peppermint.
- Tropical Blues: A mix of banana, pineapple, apple, orange, thai lime leaf, kiwi, lucuma, coconut water, baobab, and blue spirulina.
- Mocha Flavor: Mix includes coffee, cacao beans, maqui berries, dates, strawberries, shiitake mushroom, chaga mushroom, baobab powder, and cinnamon.
- Reds: Ingredients include a mix of strawberry, raspberry, banana, apple, dates, ginger, and chia seeds.
- Blushes: Ingredients include a mix of mango, papaya, strawberry, passion fruit, orange, lucuma, carrot, beet, apple, and cayenne pepper.
- Golds: A mix of cacao, banana, strawberry, pea protein, dates, goji berries, baobab powder, and flax seeds.
- Crimsons: Ingredients include açaí berries, banana, strawberry, apple, mango, cinnamon, and chia seeds
- Ambers: A mix of passion fruits, bananas, dates, apples, baobab powder, yellow beetroot, chia seeds, and turmeric.
- Spicy Tomatoes: A mix of tomato, celery root, red pepper, cayenne pepper, cranberry, white pepper, and salt.
- Mint Greens: A mix of apple, mango, banana, orange, sweet potato, spearmint, wheatgrass, and ginger.
- Pumpkins: This flavor definitely had a Fall pumpkin spice vibe about it. The first taste that hit was the pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
- Yellows: This flavor is the most tropical and fruity.
- Greens: There was a big mix of flavors in this one. First, you get hit with the slight bittersweetness of the pineapple and apple.
- Corals: This seemed a bit too heavy on the beetroot and ginger, which seemed overpowering.
- Peaches: This flavor barely tasted the sweet potato.
- Jades: This was definitely one of the most interesting flavors out of all the ones I had previously tried.
- Rubies: This was the most adventurous flavor that I ended up really liking.
Kencko as a Convenient Alternative
Kencko is a smoothie delivery service that offers quick alternatives to traditional fruit and veggie smoothies. Kencko uses only fruits and vegetables in their powders and are legitimate smoothies.
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Freeze-Dried vs. Fresh
Freeze-drying dehydrates food to the point where there is little to no water still being retained. Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables contain slightly lower amounts of certain vitamins, they are still rich in antioxidants and fiber.
Variety
Kencko has a diverse selection to choose from with 20 different flavors. They do a good job of mixing up the flavors between bold/adventurous and traditional. They rotate in different flavors month to month. Kencko only uses organic fruits and vegetables in their smoothies so they fit into quite a lot of different types of diets.
Packaging
Kencko uses compostable plastics. Kencko's plant-based packaging material is certified for industrial composting. This means that it biodegrades within 90 days in a suitable facility. The shaker bottle that comes in your first subscription order is both BPA-free and dishwasher safe, making it very convenient to reuse. Between the two sections of the bottle there's a "filter" that helps blend the smoothie powder with the water or liquid base you're using. The cap on the bottle seals very well too.
Taste and Consistency
All of the Kencko smoothies tried didn't have a traditional smoothie consistency. All of the Kencko smoothies I tried didn't have a traditional smoothie consistency.
Storage
Keep them in a cool and dry place, away from direct sunlight. This will ensure that the packaging doesn't get damaged. Kencko says that each packet should last between 3-6 months from when you receive it.
Kencko Fruit Snacks
They're basically a fruit and vegetable packed alternative to traditional gummy candies. They follow the same approach and branding as their smoothie packets. Each gummy packet has different fruits and vegetables that make up a unique functional benefits.
Kencko vs. Competitors
Kencko sits in a very unique position among all of the smoothie delivery services that we've tried in the past. While they bill themselves as a smoothie, they are almost incomparable to services such as Splendid Spoon, SmoothieBox, or Daily Harvest (all of which send you frozen or premade smoothies).
- TUSOL: Both TUSOL and Kencko look very similar. They both offer powered smoothie subscriptions, similar flavors, and they even have similar branding. However, Kencko only uses organic fruits and vegetables (no added sweeteners).
- Vejo: Their smoothies are mixed using the Vejo blender bottle, which acts like a Keurig coffee machine. You input your smoothie "cup" at the top of the blender bottle, add a liquid base, and the bottle automatically blends it for you. It's a genius concept.
- Everipe: Both Kencko and Everipe offer smoothie packets made from only freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. While Everipe offers 5 different flavors to choose from, Kencko has 20.
Kencko vs. Traditional Smoothies
Kencko is not much like making traditional smoothies in a blender. Kencko didn't convince me to give up my Nutribullet in favor of daily freeze-dried smoothies. Kencko got their flavors down. They have something for everyone and they do a decent job of replicating some classics like the "banana, strawberry, blueberry" as well as more tropical smoothie flavors. The drawback in comparison with traditional smoothies you make at home is that they taste fresh.
Benefits of Kencko
- Convenience: For me, making a smoothie at home is easily going to take at least 10 to 15 minutes, if not more. In my experience, Kencko saved me an extra 15 minutes each morning in comparison to making a smoothie.
- Variety: Out of all the freeze-dried smoothie options out there, Kencko offers some of the most diverse selection of flavors available.
- Quality: Kencko definetly prioritizes quality. They're one of the only services that offers a nutrition coach.
- Shaker Bottle: The shaker bottle that comes with your first box is not only free but also very high quality.
- Environmentally Friendly: They're one of the most environmentally friendly food delivery services we've tried. Kencko far surpasses other smoothie delivery services out there when it comes to being environmentally conscious.
- Single-Serving: I like that Kencko offer single-serving smoothies that I can use whenever. I've found them to be perfect on long car rides or when traveling.
Drawbacks of Kencko
- Some flavors are "out there": Not every flavor is great. The good news is that they have enough variety to choose from that you aren't stuck reordering flavors you don't enjoy.
- Consistency: Don't expect Kencko to have the consistency of your typical traditional smoothie.
- Not a meal replacement: Kencko says that you can have one of their smoothies as a breakfast replacement but even when I tried that I still felt hungry.
Customer Reviews
Kencko earns mixed reviews: the brand delivers convenient, compostably packaged freeze‑dried fruit-and-veg blends with vibrant flavors like Reds, Purples, and Golds that many find delicious and energizing, yet its smoothies often drink more like thin juice and frequently clump or taste gritty. Reviews of Kencko praise easy on‑the‑go nutrition, clean ingredients, and flavor variety, while calling out inconsistent mixing, seedy/grainy texture, occasional blandness, and a repeatedly cited high cost; several recommend using plant milk or a blender for better texture.