Review: MonaVie Premiere Açai Blends

First came wheatgrass. Then pomegranate juice was all the rage. In 2009, açai will probably be the trendy juice in health food stores and smoothie bars. I had the opportunity to try two products by MonaVie, their signature MonaVie Açai Blend juice and MonaVie Active gel. Being a skeptic when it comes to products that make elaborate claims of miracle health benefits, I was curious to see if MonaVie would indeed boost my energy or if it was simply twenty-first century snake oil.

What is Açai?

Açai juice comes from the berries of the Açai Palm of South America. Açai berries look similar to grapes but taste more like blueberries. Because açai berries are very perishable, they were never able to make it onto the world market before they spoiled. MonaVie figured out a way to freeze dry the berries to make them transportable and get the rest of the world on the açai bandwagon.

What Are the Benefits of Açai?

Fans of açai claim that it lowers cholesterol, boosts energy, cures diabetes, helps with weight loss, the typical claims of trendy health supplements. While açai is a fruit, and fruits are essential to a nutritious diet, no studies have been done to prove any of these claims. MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend contains 18 different fruits in their açai juices, so whether or not the açai is included in the blend, it's still a healthy beverage.

MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend Juice - First Impressions

Packaged elegantly in a red wine bottle, MonaVie's signature açai juice blend makes a smart first impression. The label is simple, just a small circular logo with minimal white text. The screw top lid is sealed in shocking purple wrap. It looks appealing; I was expecting something akin to red wine.

MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend Active Gel - First Impressions

I've seen plenty of fitness energy gels in health food stores. MonaVie gel looks like the others. It comes in a one-ounce packet, black with a green tab. It contains the same blend of 18 fruits but is pumped up with the natural glucosamine found in the açai berry. Since I had never tried an energy gel before, I was eager to see what the big deal was.

MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend Juice - My Analysis

The concentrated juice poured smoothly into the glass. It was a muddy, purple color and smelled... fruity. Big surprise. I took a sip, the dense consistency took a moment to get used to. MonaVie comes on strong and tangy at first, but then mellows leaving the sweet flavor of blueberries and grapes behind. My overall impression was that it tasted like a melted blueberry smoothie. It was okay, but I'd rather have a smoothie.

MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend Active Gel - My Analysis

The gimmick of eating some kind of goo from a pouch got the kid in me all excited. I feverishly tore open the package and squeezed out a little bit of gel. It was so sweet my eyes started to tear up. My body's reaction was to spit it out, that it wasn't meant to be ingested. It had the same blueberry-grape flavor of the juice, but it seemed like MonaVie had simply packaged the juice concentrate in the pouch. I knew I would end up with a severe stomach ache if I had eaten the whole thing so I spared myself the discomfort.

MonaVie Premiere Açai Blend - Conclusion

The juice was nice, if not a little too viscous for my palate. But I didn't feel any immunity, energy, intellectual or any other kind of boost from the juice du jour. At $40 a bottle, I don't imagine this product will stand the test of time, especially in this economy. And as for the gel, thumbs down. Perhaps if I'd been able to tolerate the bad medicine I would have experienced the energy high it promised.