My Berry Forest

Creative plant-based recipes from the magical berry forest

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BÄR BAR SMOOTHIE BAR – THE BEST BERRY SMOOTHIES

Collaboration with Bär Bar.
BÄR BAR smoothie bar - the best berry smoothies As a huge berry lover, I was super happy when the owners of Bär Bar smoothie bar asked me to design smoothie recipes for them. Bär Bar is a cute smoothie bar in Helsinki focusing on Finnish super foods: BERRIES! The concept of Bär Bar is very unique: Bär Bar uses only Finnish berries as the main ingredient in their smoothies. Finnish berries are delicious, vitamin rich antioxidant bombs, and they make Bär Bar smoothies totally irresistible.

To read this post in Finnish, click here.

The berries used in Bär Bar are: bilberries (wild blueberries), lingonberries, sea buckthorn, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, red currants and black currants. The smoothies I designed for Bär Bar are of course filled with these amazing vitamin boosts. Here are the vegan, gluten-free smoothie bowls I designed:

♥ Berry Forest bowl is filled with berry energy, as it contains four different kinds of berries.

♥ Caramel Dream bowl is a classic Nordic combo of lingonberries and caramel. The tart berries combined with sweet caramel is really a dream.

♥ Super bowl is a smoothie, which would be a perfect lunch! I designed it so that it contains healthy fats (such as avocado), vitamin C rich seabuckthorn and even a veggie: carrot. The flavor is mildly sweet and creamy.

BÄR BAR smoothie bar - the best berry smoothies

Caramel Dream Bowl

I got to know Bär Bar owner couple Jasmiina ja Pete during my smoothie recipe design process. Their positivity and berry enthusiasm is contagious 🙂 Here’s a little interview I did with Jasmiina about the Bär Bar concept and entrepreneurship:

Bär Bar is a snack bar focusing on Finnish berries. The first of its kind. Our mission is to bring Finnish berries into the every day life of busy people in a fun and delicious way. First in Finland, then in other countries too.

How did you come up with the unique Bär Bar concept?

I’ve been picking berries from the forest ever since I was little, and I wondered why we Finns don’t praise Finnish berries more, and why we don’t eat them more. Instead we buy goji berries and mulberries, which are branded as super foods.
It all began 1,5 years ago in May: I started thinking out loud how amazing it would be to have a place where busy people could buy healthy & wholesome snacks to go made from Finnish berries.
We got excited about this idea, and we started planning this together with Pete: how to get people fall in love with Finnish berries.
BÄR BAR smoothie bar - the best berry smoothies

Super Bowl

What was the process of establishing a snack bar like?

In May 2017 Pete made calculations and wrote our business plan, in June we hired creative designers to create the brand concept. The first recipes were created in fall 2017 and we searched for a space for Bär Bar. It was a pretty challenging process because the big real estate owners weren’t interested in an unknown concept. In January 2018 we opened our first Bär Bar in Itäkeskus, and now we moved our place to the center of Helsinki, Freda 30.

You’re running Bär Bar business while working full time. How do you have the time and energy for it all?

You learn to be efficient. We really believe in what we’re doing and in our products. We also get amazing feedback from customers, and it gives us energy to keep on working (even though it is tiring at times). Sometimes we laugh at it: when we have a lot of stress factors in our life, we just don’t have the time to stress over little things. So everything’s relative 😉

Have you always been entrepreneurial?

We both come from entrepreneurial families and we are both very energetic challenge seekers (= we get bored pretty easily). So I guess we are entrepreneurial 🙂

Do you have tips for anyone dreaming of starting a business?

Having a dream is one thing, but 99% is hard work and perseverance. So my best advice is DO and not just dream. If you want a comfortable & easy life, being an entrepreneur might not be your thing.

What are your favorite Bär Bar smoothies?

Jasmiina: One More Straw
Pete: Tender Tyrni

So if you’re in Finland, I hope you stop by Bär Bar for a smoothie or two. I promise, it will be a berrylicious experience!

If you want a healthy berry smoothie recipe, check out my latest vitamin rich smoothie:

Immune boosting sea buckthorn smoothie bowl

With lots of berry love from the forest,

Tiina

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