One of the few perks of being a food blogger (an e-mail box that gets flooded and zero/low pay aren’t perks) is that occasionally companies will provide you with some samples of a product to review. Such was the case recently, when Yoplait and KitchenAid, through MyBlogSpark, sent me a KitchenAid blender and some coupons to try the new Yoplait Smoothie packages that are available in your frozen food section.

This is the latest in a long line of many, many, many “products of convenience” that no one is really asking for or needs, but that manufacturers hope will succeed because Americans are lazy.  Here’s the deal (and I use that term loosely): for $3.75 (price at my local grocery store) you can buy a 7.6 oz package of Yoplait frozen fruit and yogurt pieces. Add one cup of milk, throw in the blender, and you get two 8 oz smoothies. Poof. You have a smoothie.  It tasted good, like pretty much any smoothie does when you combine frozen or fruit, milk and yogurt.

Like any product of convenience, you are going to pay a mark-up for the time-saving factors involved, but I had a suspicion that this product was even more of a kick-you-in-the-balls-and-take-your-money rip-off than normal.  Let’s review the costs involved.

For $3.75 and a cup of milk (aprox. $.25 at $4 per gallon) you get two, 8 oz smoothies.

• Cost per 8 oz of Yoplait smoothie: $2.00

Now lets say instead you bought a 16 oz bag of frozen strawberries at $2.50, a 32 oz container of yogurt at $2.50 and 4 bananas for $1

Homemade 8 oz smoothie (2 oz strawberries, 1/2 banana, 1 cup milk, 1 oz yogurt).

• Cost per 8 oz of homemade smoothie: $.54

Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s a mark-up of almost 300%.

Translation: you are a lazy slob (albeit one who loves smoothies) who is willing to pay extra for a time savings of 30-45 seconds when assembling a smoothie.

Now you could argue that a pre-packaged smoothie allows you to make smoothies more elaborate than strawberry banana, such as the blueberry pomegranate one you see pictured above. And that would be correct. Surely there is some value to the convenience of making a flavor combination at home that would normally be difficult if buying all the other ingredients in bulk.

But product of convenience or not, isn’t the one of the points of making food at home that it is pretty much ALWAYS cheaper than buying something at a restaurant? Again, let’s review.

• Cost per 8 oz of Yoplait smoothie: $2.00

What if instead of making a smoothie with this product, you instead bought one at McDonald’s or Jamba Juice?

McDonald’s 12 oz Wild Berry smoothie: $2.29

• Cost per 8 oz of McDonald’s smoothie: $1.53

Jamba Juice Berry Yumberry Smoothie (Yumberry juice, blueberries, mangoes, and peaches): $3.89

• Cost per 8 oz of Jamba Juice smoothie: $1.94

All together now:

• Cost per 8 oz of homemade smoothie: $.54
• Cost per 8 oz of McDonald’s smoothie: $1.53
• Cost per 8 oz of Jamba Juice smoothie: $1.94
• Cost per 8 oz of Yoplait smoothie: $2.00

A homemade smoothie will cost about 1/3rd of a YoPlait smoothie. The Yoplait smoothie, which, I might add, you still have to make YOURSELF at HOME, is about 30% more than one someone else makes for you at McDonald’s. Even if you want to purchase the Mercedes of the smoothie world and go to a Jamba Juice, you can do so for LESS than than a YoPlait smoothie! Unbelievable! Oh, and I’m pretty sure Jamba Juice is using 100% fresh, not frozen fruit.

Verdict: Don’t be lazy and waste your money. If you are going to be lazy, you might as well go to McDonald’s, save a little money and enjoy the laziness of someone else making your smoothie for you. Or go to Jamba Juice, get a smoothie that actually has fresh fruit, while watching someone else make it for you and still pay slightly less than for a YoPlait smoothie.