Smoothie Factory

While walking around downtown San Marcos, looking for an appropriate listening post, my partner and I came upon The Smoothie Factory. I was a little hesitant. 'Everyone likes smoothies,' I thought. 'How could this place represent a segment of the community that lacks attention?' Then I saw a transplanted segment of grass on the counter next to a machine that presses it into liquid form. I asked the clerk about it, and he explained it was wheatgrass, and 40-50% of the Smoothie Factory's customers strictly come for shots of the green liquid. He further told me, they have a good number of people who come in every day for wheat grass. Perfect! We just stumbled into a wheatgrass community.

While waiting for the grass consumers to walk in, we noticed a wall full of pictures of people who drink wheatgrass, and a quote from each of them: 'I don't smoke grass, I drink it!' they would say, or something mildly clever like that. The people seemed to range in age from 18-50's and were of mixed genders and ethnicities. The only common threads I could come up with were they all seemed to be in good physical shape and they all were very health conscious. Also, with so much nutrition in such a one or two oz. shot glass, they all felt the need to get their nutrition quickly. Probably meaning they have busy lives.

If there are any questions as to the point of drinking wheatgrass, the clerk will gladly fill you in, or you can just look at the big poster on the wall that identifies some 40 benefits. They include: Increased energy and brain function, detoxification of the body, prevention of tooth decay and curing most kinds of cancer. Okay, I made that last one up. But the point is, the stuff is supposed to be good for you.

The phenomena of wheatgrass and the people who drink it seemed to be underrepresented in the media and I'm not sure why. In a society that wants to be healthy but also lacks time where we see infomercials for 30-second abs and diet pills, wheatgrass should be in the forefront of this movement. One shot of lawnmower juice and boom, you're much healthier.

With a growing number of wheatgrass drinkers, combined with a rec. center that recently doubled in size and coffee houses like Tantra serving vegan food, that tells me San Marcos is a healthy community. Some of that might be a result of being so close to Austin, which is always listed as one of the healthiest cities in the country.

If I were to write a story, I would definitely focus on the wheatgrass. I might talk to people who drink it regularly and ask them about their health before and after they started drinking it. Also, I can use these people for other stories I may write, such as a story on the growing obesity epidemic. I could use a health expert who also drinks wheatgrass and talk to him.