Stayin’ Cool and Healthy

September 5, 2013 | By Rasa Fournier

From fresh-squeezed juices to acai bowls, get the inside scoop on where to get healthy and delicious treats.

Fresh local produce and exotic Polynesian ingredients come together for refreshing, wholesome offerings available throughout Waikiki. Locals knowledgeable about healthy fare are pretty adamant about where to find the best acai bowl on the island. The premier contenders, not only for acai, but also for smoothies, juices and fruit bowls are right along the Kalakaua strip, or in close vicinity.

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Pacific Passion

An icy drink while lounging poolside says vacation like nothing else, especially when the juice comes from the new Lanikai Juice stand at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Visitors once had to travel inland to any of three ridiculously popular Lanikai Juice locations, until now. The menu is ripe with breakfast items, as well as salads and wraps, but it’s the fruity items squeezed or blended that cause all the fuss. Pacific Passion, the most popular smoothie on the menu, is a luscious mix of passion fruit, Maui pineapple, papaya, mango, banana, fresh yogurt and honey. The swirl of the island’s best fruit arrives ice cold and thick, with a citrus zing. Slurp!

Lanikai Juice
Hilton Hawaiian Village Tapa Pool
2005 Kalia Road [D:4 Waikiki Map]
(808) 955-5500 Ext. 74179
www.lanikaijuice.com

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Yogurt Bowl

Granola is crunchy and tasty, cut up fruit and berries are scrumptious, and Greek yogurt is unbelievably thick and creamy. Put them together and the Island Vintage Coffee Organic & Natural’s Yogurt Bowl is intense, addictive goodness. The best part is that the yogurt is non-fat. The bowl comes with a choice of fresh berries or Kahuku papaya and is topped with local honey and bee pollen. Both island Vintage coffee and its next-door organic & Natural store are loaded with local goodies from specialty chocolates to Hawaiian salts and body products. Island Vintage serves the full gamut of coffee selections, while the Organic & Natural section serves nutritious meal items including the hearty Yogurt Bowl.

Island Vintage Organic & Natural
Royal Hawaiian Center
2301 Kalakaua Ave., #C211 [C:8 Waikiki Map]
(808) 923-3383
www.islandvintagecoffee.com

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Acai Bowl

Hawaiian Crown Plantation prides itself on products and ingredients that are locally sourced. The store’s bananas, honey, macadamia nuts, cacao and coffees are all grown on Hawai’i Island, while the pineapples are grown right on O’ahu.

Photo: Courtesy Hawaiian Crown Plantation

Photo: Courtesy Hawaiian Crown Plantation

“You have to try our acai bowl,” says manager Yuri Koshibe. “Everything is local from our farms or our partners’ farms,” says Koshibe. “We start with organic granola and then we put our acai mix, which is a blend of acai, pineapples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, a little soy milk and apple juice. We top it with more organic granola and fresh fruit: pineapple, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. We drizzle honey over it, then we put crushed macadamia nuts and cacao nibs on top.”

Acai hails from Brazil, so a significant taste test is when a Sao Paulo customer looks up from one of Koshibe’s bowls with a wide smile and energetic thumbs up.

Hawaiian Crown Plantation
159 Ka’iulani Ave., #105 [B:9 Waikiki Map]
(808) 779-7887
www.hawaiiancrown.com

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Kulolo Smoothie

Diamond Head Cove Health Bar is a bustling surfer-themed joint. Artistic sketches fill the ceiling, and photos, surfboards and piles of bananas and watermelons on the counter lend an island vibe to the room. The team behind the counter is busy chopping and blending to keep up with the demand for fresh juices, acai bowls, wraps and unusual selections, like their specialty smoothies: Acai Berry, ‘Awa Coconut and Kulolo. We all know what acai is, unless we’ve been stranded on a desert island. Many are also familiar with the mellowing affects of ‘awa or kava, a native Polynesian plant root once used as a traditional, ceremonial drink. The lady at the counter says the more esoteric specialty smoothie, Kulolo, is her favorite. It’s made of pa’i’ai (a thick hand-pounded paste made from the taro root), bananas, coconut milk and agave. The resulting purple-gray pudding doesn’t provide an immediate, “Wow, yum,” response, but it is thick, filling and you can brag that you’ve enjoyed a truly indigenous delicacy.

Diamond Head Cove Health Bar
3045 Monsarrat Ave #5
(808) 732-8744
www.diamondheadcove.com

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Photo: Vinicus Silva

Green Lemonade

For a quick cold fix on a sun-drenched day, Juice Box offers a simple menu of juices and smoothies. Green Lemonade provides an instant pick-me-up with its combination of apple, kale, spinach, celery, lemon and ginger. The juice bar also makes various other combinations of fruit and vegetable juices as well as fresh apple, carrot, orange, pineapple or celery juices. The smoothies are generally almond milk-based and include good-for-you supplements like flax seeds and whey protein. Healthy, easy, yummy.

Juice Box
3118 Monsarrat Avenue