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Chocolate Espresso Banana Smoothie

This healthy Chocolate Espresso Banana Smoothie is sure to satisfy your chocolate craving and give you a burst of energy!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,430 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Add the frozen bananas, almond milk, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, espresso powder, and cocoa powder to a blender.

  2. Add the honey now if using, for a sweeter smoothie.

  3. Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides once, until completely smooth and thick.

  4. Taste and blend briefly again if you want more sweetness or flavor.

  5. Pour into two glasses and serve right away.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Banana + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Yogurt + honeytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Banana + honeytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Vanilla + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,262 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, vanilla, milk, yogurt, cocoa powder, honey):

  1. Peanutbetter flavor fit
  2. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Hazelnutabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, vanilla, milk, yogurt, cocoa powder, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).