Pineapple Surf Smoothie King Recipe (Copycat)

Pineapple Surf is a super popular smoothie from Smoothie King, and lucky for us, it’s not hard to recreate at home! This tropical, pineapple-forward smoothie combines strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple with apple juice.

The result is sweet, tangy, and the perfect morning or afternoon treat. All of the ingredients for Pineapple Surf can be found at your local grocery store and you might just have them in your kitchen already.

Pineapple Surf copycat recipe ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• ¾ cup apple juice
• 1 peeled kiwi
• ½ cup almond milk
• ½ cup ice

The actual Pineapple Surf smoothie from Smoothie King uses their own “kiwi apple juice blend.” However, we can pretty easily recreate that by adding a kiwi and some quality apple juice to our blender. Smoothie King also uses their “dairy whey blend” which adds a little protein and creaminess.

Instead, we’ll use almond milk (or a milk of your choice). You can also choose to add a scoop of vanilla protein powder, if you like, but you might need to adjust the ratio of the other ingredients.

You might also enjoy my healthy Coconut Shake recipe!

Buy or freeze your own pineapple and strawberries

It’s so convenient to buy frozen fruit in big, family-sized bags at the grocery store, but sometimes I prefer to freeze my own strawberries and pineapple.

Strawberries are so much easier to measure out when they’re been chopped before freezing. So whenever I have a surplus of berries, or ones that are going to go bad before I can eat them all, I wash and chop the fruit, then place them in a freezer bag for at least a few hours before making a smoothie.

Frozen pineapple is generally pretty good, but have you ever noticed that they seem to always include bits of the tough core? I really dislike finding these fibrous bits in my finished smoothies.

So if you like, you can easily freeze your own pineapple by slicing off the skin, coring the fruit, and chopping the fruit into manageable pieces. Place the pieces in a freezer zip-top bag and like above, let the fruit freeze for at least a few hours before using in a smoothie.

The easy way to peel a kiwi

Did you know that the kiwi’s fuzzy brown skin is actually edible? So if you don’t mind the little hairs in your drink, you can just toss a halved kiwi in your blender. Make sure to wash it thoroughly first, though.

But if you want a nicer texture and no weird bits getting stuck in your teeth, you’re going to want to peel off the skin.

The easiest way to peel a kiwi is to use a Y-shaped vegetable peeler, rather than a knife. Carefully pull the peeler down the length of the fruit, moving around it until you’ve removed all but the top and bottom poles. You can then just cut those pieces off, cut the fruit in half, and add it to the blender.

The best blenders for making smoothies

What type of apple juice to use

You can use any apple juice you like for this recipe. Fresh pressed would be incredible, but even more processed juices sold at room temp will do just fine. Rather than adding flavor, the apple juice in this recipe is adding liquid and sweetness.

Because it doesn’t contribute a lot in the way of flavor, you can definitely substitute other liquids for the apple juice in Pineapple Surf. The best substitution would be pineapple juice (unsweetened, that is).

Orange juice could be used in a pinch, but it will change the overall flavor of the drink. Another option would be to use a combination of water and simple syrup, or to skip the water and just use sweetened almond milk instead of unsweet.

This would mean that you’d omit the apple juice in the recipe below and change the almond milk to 1 1/4 cups of (sweetened) almond milk.

Use crushed ice, if possible

Crushed ice, or even just smaller pieces of ice, will always produce a better smoothie in less time. When you use cubed ice, it’s much easier for pieces of ice to not get incorporated and for your drink to become chunky. Add your ice to the blender first, the frozen fruit and top with liquids.

How to make a perfect Pineapple Surf smoothie at home

Now that you’ve got all of your ingredients assembled, add them to your blender, starting with the ice and frozen fruits. Next add your kiwi and finally the liquids.

Blend on low, using your blender’s tamper to push the ingredients down toward the blades. As the blender begins to smooth out the mixture, increase the speed.

Once the smoothie is completely smooth, turn off the blender and pour the drink into a highball glass. Garnish with pineapple fronds or strawberries if you’re feeling fancy!

More Smoothie King copycat recipes to enjoy:

• Angel Food Smoothie King Recipe (Copycat)
• Strawberry Hulk Smoothie King Recipe (Copycat)
• Island Impact Smoothie King Recipe (Copycat)
• Caribbean Way Smoothie King Recipe (Copycat)
• The Best Smoothie King Smoothies