Sweet potato and mango don't usually share the same drink menu. At Blends North Tulsa, Chris Walker has put them together in a slushy. It's an unlikely combination, and a good introduction to the kind of business he has brought to North Peoria Avenue.

The surprise starts with the building. Near 56th Street North and North Peoria Avenue, a green-and-white shipping container has been converted into a kitchen. It is the home of Blends, Walker's fruit-juice and slushy business at 5603 N. Peoria Ave.

Walker offers other combinations, too: pineapple ginger, strawberry mint and cucumber mango. When Elliot Terrell reported on Blends for The Oklahoma Eagle and Tulsa Flyer in early October, he admitted he had doubts about sweet potato mango. He tried it and came away pleasantly surprised. That reaction belongs to the reporter, but it captures the invitation in an unfamiliar flavor: give it a chance.

For Walker, the drinks also have a purpose beyond surprising people. He told Terrell that he wants to bring more options he considers healthy and appealing to Tulsa residents, especially people living in District 1. “We have a cultural issue that we’re trying to change,” he said. His starting point is simple: make fruit-based choices available close to home.

The shape of the shop is as unconventional as the menu. A converted shipping container is a different sort of place to open a neighborhood drink business; sweet potato mango is a different sort of flavor to offer. Together, they show Walker putting an idea into the world rather than leaving it on the drawing board. Whatever challenges the venture has involved, the kitchen and its menu are real.

His interest in food reaches beyond the container. Walker is also an aquaponic farmer. In the same interview, he spoke about his work with lettuce, kale, mustard greens and collards, along with plans to grow additional crops. His interest in what people can grow connects naturally with his interest in what they might enjoy drinking.

At the time of the October report, Blends drinks were also available at the north location of Oasis Fresh Market. That gave people another way to find Walker's flavors while visiting a neighborhood grocery. The specific selection there may have changed since the reporter's visit.

The Blends North Tulsa website describes fruit-focused drinks and pickup ordering. For anyone curious enough to try one, the place to look is 5603 N. Peoria Ave.; checking the business's current menu and hours before visiting is sensible. This is an ongoing local-business discovery, rather than an announcement of a brand-new opening.

Walker has turned an unexpected space into a real option for his neighborhood, with combinations people may never have imagined ordering. The first surprise on North Peoria is that there is a fruit-drink kitchen inside that shipping container. The next might be what happens when someone gives sweet potato and mango a chance.