Açaí bowls: the latest health food craze. And for a good reason—they’re full of antioxidants, healthy sugars, and topped with perfectly crunchy granola. If you haven’t already figured it out, I have fallen victim to this addictive breakfast food🤤 So, I have taken it upon myself to find the best açaí bowls in my area—and dragged fellow smoothie loving friends with me along the journey.
During my taste testing, I came up with a set of factors that make for a truly tasty bowl:
- 🧊Meltyness us of the açaí: Granted, I am a slow eater, but the açaí should not turn into soup five minutes after getting it—that turns the scoop-able, enjoyable consistency into a mess of sunken fruit and soggy granola.
- 🥜Granola Crunch: The granola needs to hold it’s own. In my opinion, one of the best parts of these bowls is getting a good crunch in the midst of the soft fruit and smooth açaí, so the granola in question can’t become mushy as it sits on the smoothie base.
- 🫐Freshness of Fruit: This is another factor that adds to the refreshing nature of this treat. Having fresh fruit with tons of ripe, citrusy flavor really takes the bowl to the next level
- 🍫Toppings: I personally love ones like shredded coconut, peanut butter, Nutella, honey… basically the restaurant needs to have fun options to keep their items unique and tasty.
Below are my top three açaí bowl places in ascending order in Charlotte ranked on a scale of 1-10 for each of the factors. Let’s go!
3. Green Brothers
Meltyness—4/10
This is really what killed Green Brothers for me. While the flavor of the base is really good (not too tangy, not too sweet), it melts. Like, super fast. And the ratio between base and fruit doesn’t help, what with there being way more smoothie than actual banana or berry topping, so once you’re done with the top you’re left with a bowl of fruit soup 😦
Granola—9.5/10
Even though the base is super liquidy, the granola doesn’t go soggy. It’s a yummy honey granola made of crunchy oats and adds good texture. Moreover, they layer it throughout the bowl, putting a handful at the bottom and top. By far my favorite part of the bowl!
Fruit—5/10
I’ve never had bad fruit here, per say, it just wasn’t amazing. It’s a ratio problem again—there’s not enough fruit to balance out the amount of smoothie base. In the OG Big Sexy pictured above (I love that name by the way), it only comes with a banana, making the bowl lack in the zing you get from multiple fruits or berries.
Toppings—7/10
Pros: they usually give you a lot of the dry toppings like cocoa nibs and granola.
Cons: they don’t give a lot of the butter toppings like peanut butter. The bowl pictured above was the only time I’ve gotten a significant amount of my favorite spread while the other times I got a thin drizzle that got lost in the smoothie as it melted.
2. Frutta
Meltyness—8.5/10
Once again, I’m a slow eater, but this bowl held it’s own when it came to melting. It held it’s icy form the whole time except towards the end of my lunch, but I was okay with that because by then I only had one or two spoonfuls left anyway. And it held together the whole time for my friend who joined me, so we were both pleased by the outcome.
Granola—6/10
There’s nothing wrong with the granola here—it’s just not very flavorful. While it didn’t get soggy, it’s your typical rice crispy style granola that’s supposed to be honey but just taste vaguely sweet. Maybe next time I’ll try their specialty cinnamon granola and update this ranking, but until then I wasn’t very impressed.
Fruit—9/10
These bowls have much more fruit than Green Brothers, and it adds good texture and flavor. My strawberries had the right amount of tart-to-sweet ratio, adding a good pop to the bowl. The banana was also at peak ripeness, so there wasn’t any weird dryness that comes with a green banana or mushiness that comes from a brown one.
Toppings—7/10
Similar to Green Brothers, all their bowls had good topping options and made sure to load you up. While you can’t see it in the picture, there is a good amount of peanut butter underneath the fruit (yay!) along with a sprinkle of coconut shavings.
1. Spoons
Meltyness—9/10
Spoons bowls are deep, so I’m always impressed by how long the smoothie stays frozen. I’ve never had fruit soup here, and the ratio between base and toppings is perfect!
Granola—10/10
Spoons has specialty granola for a reason. It’s clusters of honey oats that adds a good crunch throughout the bowl, and it’s the right amount of sweetness that’s not overpowering but doesn’t hide behind the fruit or açaí.
Fruit—10000/10
By far the best fruit I’ve had—it’s always super fresh and juicy and there’s lots of it. The pineapple is especially good, which is hard to get right since a lot of times it can be too citrusy and take away from the other factors the bowl has to offer. But not at Spoons! They also have lots of fruit options and add ons if you want to customize your meal.
Toppings—10/10
This is where I got my high peanut butter drizzle standards. It’s hard to see in the picture above since it’s covered in shredded coconut and cocoa nibs, but they always make sure to give you a thick helping of your respective spread like Nutella or chocolate (yes, they have a separate chocolate spread). They also have no lack in options for other fun and nutritious add ons, like spirulina.
And there you have it, the best açaí bowls in Charlotte! Be sure to check them out and drop a comment with you favorite go-tos from each place or recomendations of other açaí places to try 🙂
Read And Eats 