People ask this at the counter more than anything else, usually while looking at both boards at once. Here is the difference, without the sales pitch.
A juice is the liquid pressed out of fruit and vegetables. The pulp, the solid part, is separated and left behind. What you are drinking is what came out of the press.
A smoothie is the whole thing blended. Nothing is taken out. The fruit is still all there, just no longer in pieces.
That single difference is where everything else comes from.
A juice is thin and cold and goes down fast. It tastes sharper, because without the pulp there is nothing softening it, which is why the green ones taste properly green.
A smoothie is thick. It is closer to eating something than drinking it, and it takes longer to get through. If you want something to hold in your hand for twenty minutes, that is the one.
Which should you order? Order the one you feel like. That is not us dodging the question, it is the honest answer: neither one is a health decision, they are two different things to drink and they suit different moments.
If you want a rule of thumb anyway: sharp and quick, take the juice. Something more substantial, take the smoothie. And if you are still standing there deciding, ask us what is good today and we will tell you.
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