diff --git a/cogl/cogl-journal.c b/cogl/cogl-journal.c
index 117707786..9e6ea22eb 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-journal.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-journal.c
@@ -233,9 +233,9 @@ _cogl_journal_flush_modelview_and_entries (CoglJournalEntry *batch_start,
 {
   CoglJournalFlushState *state = data;
   CoglVertexAttribute **attributes;
-  static const CoglDrawFlags draw_flags = (COGL_DRAW_SKIP_JOURNAL_FLUSH |
-                                           COGL_DRAW_SKIP_PIPELINE_VALIDATION |
-                                           COGL_DRAW_SKIP_FRAMEBUFFER_FLUSH);
+  CoglDrawFlags draw_flags = (COGL_DRAW_SKIP_JOURNAL_FLUSH |
+                              COGL_DRAW_SKIP_PIPELINE_VALIDATION |
+                              COGL_DRAW_SKIP_FRAMEBUFFER_FLUSH);
 
   COGL_STATIC_TIMER (time_flush_modelview_and_entries,
                      "flush: pipeline+entries", /* parent */
@@ -261,6 +261,9 @@ _cogl_journal_flush_modelview_and_entries (CoglJournalEntry *batch_start,
   attributes = (CoglVertexAttribute **)state->attributes->data;
   cogl_push_source (state->source);
 
+  if (!_cogl_pipeline_get_real_blend_enabled (state->source))
+    draw_flags |= COGL_DRAW_COLOR_ATTRIBUTE_IS_OPAQUE;
+
 #ifdef HAVE_COGL_GL
 
   /* XXX: it's rather evil that we sneak in the GL_QUADS enum here... */
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute-private.h b/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute-private.h
index ad2777f34..b3a0e081e 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute-private.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute-private.h
@@ -61,7 +61,14 @@ typedef enum
 {
   COGL_DRAW_SKIP_JOURNAL_FLUSH = 1 << 0,
   COGL_DRAW_SKIP_PIPELINE_VALIDATION = 1 << 1,
-  COGL_DRAW_SKIP_FRAMEBUFFER_FLUSH = 1 << 2
+  COGL_DRAW_SKIP_FRAMEBUFFER_FLUSH = 1 << 2,
+  /* By default the vertex attribute drawing code will assume that if
+     there is a color attribute array enabled then we can't determine
+     if the colors will be opaque so we need to enabling
+     blending. However when drawing from the journal we know what the
+     contents of the color array is so we can override this by passing
+     this flag. */
+  COGL_DRAW_COLOR_ATTRIBUTE_IS_OPAQUE = 1 << 3
 } CoglDrawFlags;
 
 CoglVertexAttribute *
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute.c b/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute.c
index 73df66ba5..eb1451613 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-vertex-attribute.c
@@ -474,7 +474,8 @@ set_enabled_arrays (CoglBitmask *value_cache,
 }
 
 static CoglHandle
-enable_gl_state (CoglVertexAttribute **attributes,
+enable_gl_state (CoglDrawFlags flags,
+                 CoglVertexAttribute **attributes,
                  ValidateLayerState *state)
 {
   int i;
@@ -498,7 +499,8 @@ enable_gl_state (CoglVertexAttribute **attributes,
     switch (attributes[i]->name_id)
       {
       case COGL_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_NAME_ID_COLOR_ARRAY:
-        if (!_cogl_pipeline_get_real_blend_enabled (source))
+        if ((flags & COGL_DRAW_COLOR_ATTRIBUTE_IS_OPAQUE) == 0 &&
+            !_cogl_pipeline_get_real_blend_enabled (source))
           {
             CoglPipelineBlendEnable blend_enable =
               COGL_PIPELINE_BLEND_ENABLE_ENABLED;
@@ -1082,7 +1084,7 @@ _cogl_draw_vertex_attributes_array (CoglVerticesMode mode,
 
   flush_state (flags, &state);
 
-  source = enable_gl_state (attributes, &state);
+  source = enable_gl_state (flags, attributes, &state);
 
   GE (glDrawArrays ((GLenum)mode, first_vertex, n_vertices));
 
@@ -1171,7 +1173,7 @@ _cogl_draw_indexed_vertex_attributes_array (CoglVerticesMode mode,
 
   flush_state (flags, &state);
 
-  source = enable_gl_state (attributes, &state);
+  source = enable_gl_state (flags, attributes, &state);
 
   buffer = COGL_BUFFER (cogl_indices_get_array (indices));
   base = _cogl_buffer_bind (buffer, COGL_BUFFER_BIND_TARGET_INDEX_ARRAY);