When you’re strolling by the waterfront on a stiflingly hot day, what could sound better than an ice-cold smoothie? Well, hundreds of Torontonians got just that treat on July 8, when Dairy Farmers of Canada blended up a larger-than-life blueberry smoothie that totaled a whopping 1,000 litres! (That’s 219.97 gallons or 264.17 US gallons for those of you not on the metric system.)

It was months ago when Dairy Farmers of Canada cooked up the idea for this record attempt, which would promote dairy products produced entirely in Canada. Even the blueberries and honey in the smoothie all came from Canadian farms. The recipe included 550 litres of milk, 150 litres of vanilla yoghurt, 35 litres of honey, and 300 kg of frozen blueberries.

But how, you might wonder, does one even prepare and mix a smoothie of that magnitude? In this case, it took a specially designed tank with a capacity of about 1,200 litres. Inside the tank, automated arms continually stirred the mixture, and underneath it was connected to a refrigerating system that kept the temperature constant at -1˚C (30.2˚F). Hey, a true smoothie’s gotta be ice-cold, right?

Dedicated smoothie makers worked about 3 and a half hours to get all of the ingredients out of refrigerated trucks and into the tank. While pouring in the milk, yoghurt, and honey was pretty straightforward, it took giant immersion blenders, 20-litre buckets, and especially strong team members to blend the frozen blueberries with milk before they were added to the mixture. After everything had been added, the concoction was allowed to blend in the tank for another half hour before I climbed up on the platform to witness the final measurement, confirming that the smoothie had passed the 1,000-litre mark.

I gave the official thumbs-up (and certificate, of course) to an enthusiastic, dairy loving crowd, who happily cooled off with a smoothie to celebrate!

Kimberly Partrick
9 July 2010