I was overjoyed upon finding out that Natur-Tyme — a “good for you” grocery store carrying mostly nutritious and organic products, located at 3160 E. Erie Blvd. — has a cafe inside of it.

Tyme-Out Café allows you to grocery shop and grab something to eat, all in one convenient location. And you can avoid the danger of grocery shopping while hungry, which causes an excessive amount of impulse-buying.

Upon arriving at Natur-Tyme, I was taken aback by the store’s size. Natur-Tyme’s Erie Boulevard location is relatively new — it relocated from Bridge Street in DeWitt last year for expansion purposes. Unlike most health and wellness stores, which are pretty compact, Natur-Tyme is almost the size of a regular grocery store.

The cafe, located to the right of the store’s entrance, has an ample amount of tables for customer seating. A sucker for complimentary things, I loved the free cucumber water you could pour at your leisure available at the counter.

The cafe serves smoothies, hot chocolate, gelato, shakes made with the gelato, coffee, soups and chili. The drinks are made on the premise, however the cashier explained the cafe does not have any cooking facilities. The soups and chili are made by a woman living near Albany who makes small batches of each entrée, then ships them to Natur-Tyme a few days or so before they’re sold. Although the soup and stew ingredients aren’t all organic, they are local, which “is just as good,” the cashier said.

In celebration of the warm temperature on the day I visited, I ordered the Mocha Nirvana smoothie for $6.99 for a 16-ounce cup. The smoothie had chocolate milk, banana, raw cacao powder, flax seed, espresso and almond milk.

One of the best parts about most of the cafe’s smoothies is that you can choose what type of milk you want. They have everything from coconut milk to rice milk to half-and-half. For my smoothie, I chose the chocolate almond milk.

I liked the openness of the cafe. You can see the employees making your smoothie, snipping the wheatgrass for wheatgrass shots and preparing fresh-pressed juice.

It didn’t take too long for me to get my smoothie — only five minutes — but I was disappointed with its size. I expected a larger drink for the heftier price tag.

The consistency of the smoothie was good — not too icy, but not too liquid-y, either. I dislike it when a smoothie is too thick, but this one easily passed through the straw.

The chocolate and banana were muted, making the espresso the dominant flavor. I would’ve liked the smoothie much more if they had used a shot of espresso instead of espresso granules, which provided an unpleasant texture. The granules where gritty, which was, well, kind of gross.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the smoothie. It was refreshing and caffeinated, as the title suggested. I also appreciated being able to explore the store while sipping on my drink.

I liked the idea of the cafe more than I liked the cafe itself. Although the smoothie lacked flavor, I support the philosophy of Natur-Tyme and will be back because of that. Any store whose mission is “to empower those we serve to take charge of their own health” can’t be bad in my book.

Published on April 17, 2013 at 12:32 am

Contact Riddley: rsgemper@syr.edu