Drinking The Grapevine

We're honored that the Bookstore in the Grove has come up with a new smoothie/shake named The Grapevine. Above, Andy is making one of the first tries at the drink, which goes good with the grilled cheese sandwich, which we used to clean our palates between tasting the shakes.

I was at the Bookstore for breakfast early Sunday morning, when Jason, the manager, came up to me to tell me that they had a new drink starting this week called, "The Grapevine," only so far, it was a name with no recipe. That's where I came in, he wanted me to come up with the drink.

I can barely boil water, let alone come up with a recipe for a smoothie or shake, but he said I had until Tuesday to do it, but right away I came up with something that I remembered from childhood. I wanted to keep "grape" as part of the recipe and I remembered that when we were kids, maybe 5, 6, or 7-years-old, my mother used to make us a chocolate shake for lunch and she would be a couple of scoops of Welch's Grape Jelly in the shake. I think she got the idea from a friend's mother who invited it. I guess we kids would be out playing all day and didn't want to stop for lunch, so once in awhile they would give us this for lunch. I don't remember having this since way back then, but it popped into my head.

So on Sunday morning, a few of us experimented at the Bookstore and came up with the right mixture. We did some research and development on the spot with customers in the store, the biggest complaint was that people couldn't taste the jelly or that that the drink was too sweet, but I think it's down to perfection now and it's now on the shake menu. They now offer shakes along with their fruit smoothies, the shakes are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and The Grapevine. 

The shakes are $5, $6 and $7, depending on the size.