How a Lyme diagnosis quietly became a smoothie bar in the White Mountains.
The day our daughter Chloe was diagnosed with Lyme disease, the way we thought about food changed forever. We learned, quickly and painfully, that healing isn’t only about medicine. It’s about what you put in your body, three times a day, for years on end. Clean. Non-GMO. Anti-inflammatory. Real.
What began as a desperate experiment — different ingredients, different combinations, anything that might help — slowly became a different way of eating altogether. Then a different way of cooking. Then a different way of feeding our family.
Tracie led the way. She read every study, talked to every doctor and nutritionist who would listen, and rebuilt our kitchen around one idea: food as recovery. Acaí bowls blended thick enough to climb. Smoothies built around inflammation-fighting greens. Homemade peanut butter, because we couldn’t find one in the store without three ingredients we couldn’t pronounce.
The breakthrough came from something already sitting on our counter: a bottle of premium extra virgin olive oil. The same oils we’d been curating next door at North Conway Olive Oil Co. for years. We learned they did more than taste good — they unlocked the very nutrients Chloe’s body was working so hard to absorb.
The breakthrough had been sitting on our shelves the whole time.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K — the ones that matter most for healing — are fat-soluble. Without fat, the body can’t absorb them. A few teaspoons of high-polyphenol olive oil, blended into a smoothie or drizzled over a bowl, turned out to be the difference between food that tasted healthy and food that actually worked.
Add a splash of aged balsamic and something else happens. The acetic acid slows sugar absorption, smoothing the energy curve. No crash. No spike. Just steady fuel for whatever the day asks of you.
We’d been selling these oils to chefs and home cooks next door for years. We had no idea they were already doing the most important work of our family’s life.
For a long time, this stayed in our home. Then we started bringing samples to friends. Then to hikers heading up Mount Washington. Then to the climbers at Cathedral Ledge. Every time, the same question: where can I get this?
Summit Smoothie Co. is our answer. A bar built right next door to the oil shop, serving the same recipes we built at home — thick acaí bowls, performance smoothies, and artisan pressed sandwiches. Always non-GMO. Always gluten-free. Always dairy-free. Always finished with the right drizzle.
We didn’t plan to open a smoothie bar. The smoothie bar happened because the food we made for Chloe ended up being the food everyone else wanted, too.
The doors open this season in North Conway Village. Join the private VIP list for an invitation to our soft opening tasting event — and a coupon for a free Wellness Drizzle, on us.