{"id":232180,"date":"2016-07-14T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=232180"},"modified":"2016-07-14T06:00:10","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:00:10","slug":"new-owners-still-mixing-blendz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/new-owners-still-mixing-blendz\/","title":{"rendered":"New owners but still mixing same Blendz"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-232180 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/new-owners-still-mixing-blendz\/blendz-pix-1\/'>Blendz-pix-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-232182'>\n\t\t\t\tCNMI Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, left, was the special guest of Tropical Blendz\u2019s re-opening last July 2. Tropical Blendz manager Joan Taitano is the one on the right. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/new-owners-still-mixing-blendz\/blendz-pix-2\/'>Blendz-pix-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-232183'>\n\t\t\t\tTropical Blendz resumed its operations earlier this month and continues to offer smoothies and other healthy food items that they have been known for. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>New owners took over the management of Tropical Blendz, which re-opened early this month, offering almost the same items\u2014smoothies and lunch specials\u2014that its local clients have grown to love the past four years. Tropical Blendz is located right across the Garapan Roundhouse in Middle Road.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Joan Taitano, whose family now owns the shop that\u2019s been a regular hangout of people who enjoy healthy food, said they practically stuck with the same menu with plans of improving or offering new items in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kept all the smoothies and juices that Tropical Blendz has been offering for the past four years, and the breakfast and lunch specials. Tropical Blendz already has a market and we did not want to alienate them. We just wanted to expand our market to more local people,\u201d said Taitano.<\/p>\n<p>Among the new things that they introduced is the smoothie specials of the week with catchy names like \u201cFeels Like the First Kiss\u201d a combination of strawberry, guava nectar, lime, and mint; and \u201cTrue Love Waits\u201d that has strawberry, banana, almond milk, and mint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have many more smoothie specials we\u2019re concocting. It\u2019s fun to actually come up with catchy and cool names,\u201d added Taitano.<\/p>\n<p>Meat is a no-no in the healthy food restaurant and as much as possible they use organic produce as their main ingredients. \u201cWe live in a tropical paradise and we ought to take advantage of the fresh local fruits and vegetables available to us,\u201d Taitano said.<\/p>\n<p>Health-conscious people are the primary target market but Taitano said they plan to expand to all and not just stick to a select few. \u201cWe would really like to make it family\/kid friendly and just make it a place where good, healthy food is available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aside from offering a gift card that offers 50 percent off on your sixth smoothie if you buy five and introducing new menu items next year, Taitano said they plan to get more involved in the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe plan to be actively involved in the community and educate people about the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. People are dying left and right because of obesity, which could actually be prevented if we made better choices of the food we eat,\u201d said Taitano.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood doesn\u2019t necessarily make people gain weight, it\u2019s the type of food we consume on a given day. Food is not supposed to make us sick, it is supposed to strengthen our bodies so we could lead better and more productive lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added that our bodies have their own way of self-healing through the vitamins and nutrients that one could get in eating the right food like fruits and vegetables have. \u201cThe end goal is eating healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTropical Blendz is committed to fulfilling the vision for the people of the CNMI to live a healthy lifestyle. The only way people could change is through education. When we educate ourselves, it empowers us to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taitano said she knows the difficulty of keeping a healthy lifestyle. \u201cBut the sacrifices we make now far outweighs the benefits we would have in the future. Saipan is our home and we ought to take care of one another.<\/p>\n<p>She added that it is yourself that you are competing with and not with other people when it comes to living healthy. That\u2019s why they teamed up with the Lose Big, Win Big contest organized by Tan Holdings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also in partnership with Tan Holdings\u2019 Lose Big, Win Big contest which begins in August and we would offer five percent discount on any purchases of smoothies for the contestants,\u201d said Taitano, whose mother owns the nearby Nila\u2019s Salon.<\/p>\n<p>She added that Tropical Blendz was not their first choice but since their family wants to venture in the food business, they chose it since it is close to their 14-year-old salon. \u201cIt was pure coincidence so it was a perfect location.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tropical Blendz is open Mondays to Saturdays from 8am to 3pm. For more information or to pick-up orders, call 233-8809.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New owners took over the management of Tropical Blendz, which re-opened early this month, offering&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":232182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42,67,12500,12501],"class_list":["post-232180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-food","tag-people","tag-tropical-blendz","tag-win-big"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}