<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://cbxblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/lucienv2.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-727" title="lucienv2" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/lucienv2.jpg" alt="" width="40" height="40" /></a> By Lucien E.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-305" title="Jamba_?" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Jamba-3.gif" alt="" width="360" height="360" /></p>
Jamba Juice uses lots of organic ingredients. This is good. Consumer continue to clamor for those. Some of their smoothie offerings are sweetened with Splenda. This is also good. They are all concentrated in a category called ‘Jamba Light.’

The wheat grass patch used to make those horrible tasting wheat grass shots is still there, and people, to my infinite consternation continue to order them (there is nothing so objectionable as a wheat grass shot, there just isn’t).

As is the 4 foot tall metal juicer, filled with mashed and discarded rinds and other matter. Its not appealing but there it is right behind the counter.
For a company that proclaims to be a unique ‘experience,’ this is a disappointing sight.

But overall, I enjoyed Jamba Juice Week. Despite the insipid cramped store layout, lack of seating, and ambient loudness, Jamba Juice offers good tasting, reasonably priced, healthy, filling options for lunch or a quick snack at various points throughout the day. No small feat.

Still and all, their recent emphasis on the food service portion of their operations begs a supplemental question, namely “What are the implications of keeping the word ‘Juice’ in the name? The brand stands for much more than Juice now. The holding company is already called Jamba, Inc. Can a name truncation/modification, successfully performed by brands such as Fedex (from Federal Express), KFC (from Kentucky Fried Chicken) nationwide and The Hut (currently being tested in several markets by Pizza Hut) be far behind?

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><em>Have you got a Jamba story to tell? Please share them with us by posting a comment.</em></span>