The Well-Known Brand That Makes Trader Joe's Very Green Juice Smoothies

Trader Joe's has a reputation for offering customers a major array of private label products, from a spice trio made for chili lovers to sauces, prepared snacks, and pet foods. And while there are many Trader Joe's secrets you may wish you knew sooner, you're probably aware that these items aren't created from scratch in some back room kitchen in the store. Still, the chain is notoriously hush-hush about where it actually sources its products.

This mysterious quality sometimes sends fans into major rabbit holes in an attempt to uncover the origins of their favorites, but the question of who produces one refrigerated standby seems to have a clear answer. Trader Joe's Very Green Juice Smoothies are packaged in a bottle with a label that may be very familiar to many avid juice drinkers — Naked Juice Green Machine. It's not only the almost total overlap in key ingredients, but the order that they appear on the list, which indicates the recipes are likely very similar. 

Ingredients and evidence

Both of these drinks feature a balance of fruits and veggies, including apple, mango, pineapple, banana, kiwi, and broccoli, spinach, wheatgrass, parsley, and kale. You'll also find spirulina and ginger root, along with a type of garlic described as odorless. The only difference between the two is that the Trader Joe's version contains blue green algae and chlorella (a so-called superfood supplement), which is not present on the Naked Juice bottle, while the Naked version contains alfalfa and kale instead.

It's not all speculation and investigative work, though. The Freedom of Information Act has been invoked by some truth-seekers, proving that Naked Juice and Trader Joe's have had a fruitful partnership at least at times over the years. There's also evidence to suggest that the store's Mango Juice Smoothie is likely a doppelganger for Naked Juice's Mighty Mango smoothie.

Price-wise, these products are comparable — both set customers back around $3 (although Naked Juice Green Machine comes in a 15.2-ounce bottle while the Trader Joe's smoothie has a splash more in a full 16-ounce pint). But if you find the lack of transparency around its private label products to be one of the mildly annoying things about shopping at Trader Joe's, you can probably plunk down this payment without needing to question where your bottle came from.

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