I was having a really bad case of the Mondays on National Acai Day back in April, and I just wanted…read moreto treat myself to something. I had known about Jamba's National Acai Day promo for the prior three or so days, so I had kept it in the back of my mind to visit a Jamba after work to take advantage of their National Acai Day promo.
What was their promo? $3 small acai smoothie or a $5 acai bowl from 3 to 7 PM, in store only. A small acai smoothie is normally $9 while a regular acai bowl is normally $14. Both good deals, but I would have preferred the acai bowl since for $2 more, I'd also get some additional toppings on top of the acai itself.
There's a Jamba closer to me, but this location was kind of intriguing to me because of how small the parking lot is. They're located on the northwest corner of Bellflower and Willow, sharing walls with both Subway and Matrix Smoke Shop. No other businesses are located here, but the lot is small enough that if each employee brought their car here, I don't think there would be any parking available for paying customers! So be forewarned you may have to park in the neighborhood if you want to visit any of these three businesses.
Anyways, I came in shortly before 6 PM, and I was quite astonished at how large and spacious this Jamba was in comparison to the locations in Lakewood and Cerritos, where parking is more plentiful. The employees seemed quite busy at preparing orders for a party of 4 or 5 that was already inside the shop upon my arrival. But it didn't take long for Marina (sp?) to assist me.
And Marina was all smiles. After my case of the Mondays kind of Monday, plus some low expectations for Jamba in general, she really did what she could to brighten up my day.
I had told her I was here for the National Acai Day promo, but I wasn't familiar with what acai bowls they offered. After I asked her, she mentioned the Acai Primo and the Acai Peanut Butter and Nutella. The Primo has a much more eclectic variety of fruits than the Peanut Butter and Nutella, which I wasn't sure would hold up well in the fridge overnight. It's just banana for the PB & Nutella, but the Primo would have both strawberries and blueberries as well.
Marina was very helpful, even reciting each and every ingredient for each of the two bowls. My mind was not firing on cylinders that day. More like sputtering on both hemispheres that the only ingredient I remembered at the time was blueberries, and I simply told her I'd pick the one with blueberries lol.
I also asked her if that particular bowl could hold up well in the fridge the next day, and she believed it could. Then, she asked me if I wanted a regular or a large. The email simply told me $5 for an acai bowl, and I was assuming it would be for a regular, so I had to ask how much for a large? It was only $2 more. I then asked how much larger the large was, and she pointed towards the example bowls on the other side of the front counter. A large is normally $17, so it'd make for even more savings than both the small smoothie and the regular bowl. It was hard for me to tell if the large was 40% larger than the regular, but I figured I'd go with the large knowing that I could save the leftovers for the next day as well as $10.
Marina also asked if I had a rewards account, and I did, though since I barely go to Jamba these days, I almost forgot how to get to my QR code lol. She instructed me on the buttons to tap, and I got my points just like that. Really appreciate how helpful she was when I was struggling to remember how to navigate my way through the app lol.
I asked Marina how long it'd take for them to prepare my bowl, and she estimated about 5 minutes. It was about 4 minutes before she called my name to let me know my order was ready. Initially, she only handed me a bowl and a spoon, but I wanted a bag since I was going to take it home to enjoy. No issues when I asked her for one; she placed my bowl and spoon in a Jamba bag, quite meticulously I must say, without any hesitation.
The bowl was packed with so much that when I removed the lid, several blueberries and a piece of strawberry got stuck on the underside. The fruit as a whole tasted quite fresh; the acai flavor, on the other hand, was a little muted, but did its job of refreshing me after such a tough day of work.
I came a second time to redeem a free small smoothie reward that wasn't redeemed properly at a different Long Beach location, and the female employee there was just as welcoming as well. I had the Acai Super-Antioxidant and enjoyed it so much that I may have found my new favorite flavor at Jamba! One of my Yelp friends said that was her favorite flavor too, a testament to how much I'd recommend it.
Definitely two of the best juice shop employees I've encountered thus far that even though this location isn't closest to me, I may have to go out of my way to visit this location next time I'm craving Jamba. I think the employees are better trained here.