Tropical Smoothie Café: Turbinado or Splenda?

T and I had a kind of bizarre encounter over the weekend. We stopped at the Tropical Smoothie Café on our way to Charlottesville, and after we had ordered our smoothies, the cashier asked us whether we wanted Turbinado sugar or Splenda in our smoothies.

Now hold on.

Extra sweetener in a fruit smoothie? Smoothies are made of fruit...also known as the sweetest natural food on the planet, and packed with its own sugar. My understanding is that smoothies have exploded in popularity because they're a sweet enough alternative to sugary sodas or other drinks. But apparently not.

We were both a little freaked out by the idea that it's assumed that people will need their smoothies to be even sweeter in order to drink them. And I think we made a pretty bad impression, snottily asking that neither Turbinado nor Splenda be added to our smoothies. But I guess it just points to a bigger problem, which is that the American palate is totally warped.