Shakeaway

This is so, so wrong. The kind of shop you dream up before going to bed after an all-night party. It seems like a good idea at the time. The basic premise is that the friendly staff will turn anything out of a staggeringly vast range of junk food into a milkshake. I mean anything. Cadbury's Creme Egg, lime and orange tic tacs, treacle tart, and jelly tots are some of their less weird ideas.

And there's no euphemism here: I asked for a strawberry cheesecake shake and watched as they plopped an actual slice of strawberry cheesecake into the blender and it slowly sank out of sight below the whirling blades. So be careful what you ask for: you're going to get it.

My companion, with unrepentantly adolescent tastes, was delighted with his "George" - a paper cupful of blended Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate topped with whipped cream. I have to admit it was less awful than I'd thought. In fact it was rather nice. Rich, sweet, cool, chocolatey and faintly crumbly, with a peanutty aftertaste. To be honest, my strawberry cheesecake blend was delicious in an utterly depraved way. But it's going to be a long time before I try one with Skittles.

You can also get healthy smoothies with fruit and veg and ginger and good things. They don't seem to run to wheatgrass like the stall in the Covered Market (I think the market sectors are rather different) but it's not all as perverted as it sounds. Thing is, once you're there, it's hard to restrain your curiosity (or the bit of your brain clamouring for tasty cholesterol). Carrot and tomato or treacle tart and lion bar? It's hardly a choice, unless you are blessed with the appetite of a thin person.

If you're naturally sporty and clean-living, you should definitely give this a miss - there are smoothie makers in Oxford who will give you no-added-faff, if not organic, shakes (try Fruitsticks in the Covered Market or G & Ds). But if there is something of the night about you, if you're not disturbed by the idea of milkshakes containing, among other things, Trebor's Extra Strong mints, haribo star mix or liquorice allsorts, then I can't help, and this is the place for you.

LovePuppet (DI User), 30/07/07

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