Pumpkin Passion

Name: Odwalla’s Super Protein Pumpkin Beverage
Purchased At: I think she said Vons Grocery Store
Price: about $3.50
Availability: Seasonal

I miss fall and I miss pumpkins. There are NO pumpkin products to be found anywhere anymore, not even on the clearance racks. It’s sad. Spring is my least favorite season. The bunnies, the chicks, the pastel colors, and the overly floral scents just don’t do it for me.

I was going to make a joke that maybe I have the opposite of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). You know, SAD is that condition caused by decreased exposure to sunlight causing fatigue, weight gain, and difficulty concentrating. When I looked it up I found out that there is a rare form of SAD known as “summer depression,” which begins in late spring or early summer and ends in fall. The symptoms are weight loss (nope, that’s not happening), trouble sleeping (that’s year round), and decreased appetite (not at all).

Too help elevate my spring ennui, I thought a pumpkin post might help. Let’s reminisce about a much missed product, Odwalla’s Super Protein Pumpkin beverage. It was a surprise gift from Terrye. I would never have thought to look for a pumpkin product among all those Odwalla juices.

This stuff is simply liquid Fall in a plastic bottle. Images of multi-colored maple leaves danced in my head while I drank this yummy beverage. I considered that it might taste too much like an extremely undercooked pumpkin pie but that wasn’t the case. If too much nutmeg or cinnamon had been added, it might have tasted too much like pie but the only ingredients listed are soymilk, pumpkin puree, banana pure, and less that 2% of 9 other vitamins and flavorings.

I must admit, however, that I didn’t finish the entire thing. Each bottle is 2 servings, making it a total of 340 calories and it did not leave me feeling as though I’d eaten an entire meal. I drank half and ate some oatmeal one day and then had the same thing the next day for double the goodness.

I wish they made this stuff year around. Physicians could prescribe it to all their summer SAD patients. I’m sure it’s an undiscovered cure.

Rating: 4 out of 5