Vive Smoothie Bar

The Vive Smoothie Bar has moved around so many places in the St David’s that it left me chasing around after it. It wasn’t going to get away that easily as I wanted to have some more of their delicious smoothies. Think of all your favourite fruits blended into a fresh ice-​cold smoothie. It just makes me thirsty thinking about it. Yummy!
Ever since St David’s went under construction this smoothie bar kept moving around and even had lots of construction work surrounding it. It hardly seems fair, as all the other stores were not surrounded by anything at all. Did people have a grudge against this little place? Did they really not want us to have fruit as part of out 5 a day? Or maybe this was a very unlucky bar. But now the construction has been lifted and the bar has moved right opposite the build a bear workshop. They serve very nice tasting smoothies that are also good for you. The colours and flavours all mixed into one drink will have you charged with that vitamin C your body desires. You also have a choice of what fruit and what size so it’s all down to you!
Vive Smoothie Bar should hopefully stay where it is permanently so it can give you the fruit fix that you want. Long live Vive!

Right in the heart of Queens Arcade sits this small juice and smoothly and seems to be one of those love it or hate it places — I’m in between.
I was drawn to this simply because it loud in colour and just seems to stand out amongst the chain stores in the arcade. This simply a take away juice bar where you can just grab a drink be on your merry way, unfortunately there is nowhere to sit down.
They have a selection of juice drinks and smoothies which are very well priced under £3 for a regular which I believe is the largest size, I ordered the ‘So Apple’ which included apples, oranges and strawberries and for an extra 50p I got a ‘booster’ included which I still have no idea what it exactly is and stupidly didn’t ask. What I do know is that a ‘booster’ is not suitable for pregnant women and under the age of 18. I was slightly disappointed that my drink was not going to be made from fresh juice as the employee told me they had ‘just switched their juicer off’ and that my drink would be made juice that was not concentrate –it didn’t matter the drink tasted great and was a very welcome relief from my hang over (maybe it was the booster) which had for the majority of the day left me feeling like I had been hit by a truck.
Anyway I recommend Vive as a place to go for a nice pick me up after a night out (like me) or indeed just a place to visit on a day of shopping and you feel the need to quench your thirst. The only reason I haven’t rated this one five is because there was no fresh juice on this particular visit and it wasn’t really made clear why at 3 in the afternoon. Still worth a visit, any day of the week.

While other cities seem to have a surplus of smoothie bars, Cardiff was a bit short until recently — but with the arrival of Vive Smoothie Bar in St David’s Centre there are a few central juide bars to choose from now.
This place is very much focused on fresh, healthy smoothie recipes, rather than drinks that look and taste good but actually contain concentrated fruit juice or fruit purées — and all juices and smoothies are made-​to-​order in front of the customer. Drinks containing yoghurt use natural, bio live yoghurt and all their milk is organic. The super detox smoothie makes you feel better after a late night, but the Berry Berry is my favourite. They also do ‘booster’ shots for 50p each — such as an energy booster or a stress-​buster.
It’s a well-​located place to get a healthy, refreshing drink and work towards your five-​a-​day, instead of grabbing a calorie-​laden, sugar-​filled Frappuccino — although there’s a place for that, too!