Jamba by Blendid
ASUCLA’s unique smoothie-making machine
Jamba by Blendid, a robotic smoothie kiosk, opened in UCLA’s Ackerman Union on Aug. 1, 2022. Through the power of robotics, Associated Students UCLA (ASUCLA) latest offering provides customizable plant-based smoothies for the UCLA community. Place an order directly at the kiosk on Level-one of Ackerman Union or order online through the Blendid app available for download through the link below.
At the kiosk, customers can choose from a selection of unique Jamba by Blendid smoothies and can modify their drink to their liking by adjusting ingredient amounts. Those who order in the app can select a pick-up time, and the robot will blend a drink together with fresh ingredients to be ready at the preferred time.
Jamba by Blendid can make a smoothie in under three minutes, nine smoothies simultaneously and up to 45 smoothies per hour. To achieve this level of smoothie-making, the kiosk is equipped with two pick-up smoothie windows, a robotic arm, three blenders and refrigerators with 20 dispensers to hold fresh produce and ingredients for the smoothies. Once the dispensers are restocked, the Jamba by Blendid kiosk can make 130-150 drinks without a resupply.
The robotic smoothie maker is already becoming a part of UCLA culture; the kiosk’s opening also marked the first year of the new annual Jamba by Blendid naming competition. Name suggestions and voting takes place on the ASUCLA Instagram at the beginning of a school year, and the robot wears a name tag with the winning name on it for the remainder of the year. By popular demand, the Blendid robot’s name is “Mo Jamba” for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jamba by Blendid is the result of a partnership between Jamba, a smoothie chain, and Blendid, the Sunnyvale-based company behind the robotic food kiosk production. The two companies started their partnership in 2020, and have since opened kiosks on three college campuses, with UCLA being the most recent. ASUCLA’s kiosk is the first Jamba by Blendid location in California and first location on a west coast campus.
