Remember Jamba Juice? The Last One in Montana is Hidden in Billings

My memory is a little foggy, but it seems like at one point in time there were Jamba Juice franchises everywhere. Founded by a 26-year-old college student in San Luis Obisbo, CA in 1990, at one point there were over 800 of these wildly popular, relatively healthy smoothie locations nationwide according to Mashed.com.

The company dropped the "Juice" part of its name in recent years, rebranding the company as simply "Jamba". Fans rave over some of their most popular, classic drinks like the Watermelon Breeze or their Aloha Pineapple smoothies. I recently learned that Billings has the only Jamba in the state, so I set out to find it.

Find Jamba on the MSU-B Campus.

The address for Montana's only Jamba location is listed as 1500 University Drive, which of course is the home of Montana State University Billings. The little red Google marker (seen above) places the smoothie shop inside the middle of McMullen Hall. I was skeptical of that accuracy, so I headed up to campus to find it myself.

I felt like a freshman.

It's been a while since I spent any time at MSU-B, and I've only been on campus for various work-related things a handful of times. Usually, to host a job fair booth or something. As I walked around the idyllic campus, I felt myself absorbing knowledge with each footstep. Ok... that's a lie. I felt pretty dumb asking the guy at the Student Orientation Desk where I could find the Jamba.

Yay! A map.

How embarrassing. The nice gentlemen handed me a helpful map and even walked me out the north doors of McMullen Hall, pointing me towards the Student Union Building. "You'll find what you're searching for there, young scholar", he said. Something like that.

Voila. I found it.

On the lower level of the Student Union Building is where you'll find Stinger's Cafe. My step-daughter swears they have "the best food on campus." I agree that whatever they were cooking smelled pretty tasty, but I didn't have time to grab lunch. Jamba is part of Stinger's. They also sell Starbucks coffee.

It's like a mini Jamba.

The Jamba location inside the SUB at MSU-B does not carry the full menu of most Jamba franchises, but they do have your favorite smoothies on the menu with about 10 to choose from. The shift supervisor I spoke with said their Jamba smoothies are quite popular. He mentioned they were unsure how much longer they'd be keeping the Jamba product name, so if you're craving one you should probably get it while you can.