City students get creative as they come up with their own smoothies

Pupils from Years 10 and 11 at Portsmouth High School joined forces to spend a day with award-winning drinks company Cawston Press and career coach Alistair Creamer, in a Dragon’s Den-style workshop where the students were tasked with designing, creating and marketing a new smoothie for the drinks company.

The day included learning how to make a new fruit juice from raw ingredients, designing the bottles and labels, marketing the product, before finally presenting to a panel to pitch their ideas.

The girls spent the day making new blends of fruit juices and presented to a team of judges from the companies involved in the day.

Prizes were awarded for presentation, team work, taste and the overall concept.

Liberty Allison from Year 11 said: ‘I’m a foodie, so I’m interested in how you get from a fruit to a juice, but I’m also interested in what goes on behind the scenes in a unique business like Cawston Press.

‘I’ve taken the opportunity to talk to the staff here today to find out how they plan to reduce sugar in their drinks since the sugar tax has come in and I’ve also asked if I can do some work experience with them in London after my GCSEs – and they have said yes.’

Deputy head John Paget-Tomlinson said: ‘They quickly settled to the task and worked in teams to achieve shared goals.

‘It was particularly impressive to see, with only limited rehearsal time, such professional presentations in front of hundreds.

‘All the juices they produced could certainly be marketable.’