New Yorkers are used to seeing Juice Press and Organic Avenue stores on every block and ordering their BluePrint and Cooler Cleanse regimens pre- and post-Fashion Week.
But with as popularity of sipping on green juices grows, there are now dozens of other brands with major presence in cities across the country making delish blends to sip on. From Hollywood’s hottest post-workout juice bar to a South Florida company with clever cleanses, we’ve singled out the rising stars in the new era of green juice go-getters.
Here are the seven brands all vying to be the next big thing in juice… —Lisa Elaine Held and Melisse Gelula
EarthbarHomebase: Los Angeles
Earthbar was Los Angeles’ first certified-organic cold-pressed juice purveyor, and its presence in the sunny city is unparalleled. It now has 13 store locations in the area, 10 of which are found inside Equinox’s LA gyms. It’s opening new stores in Brentwood and downtown LA soon and is tackling a new market: mall food courts. The brand does not go easy on dark, leafy greens, and it prides itself on the fact that it skips HPP. Of course, you may need an A-lister card to snag a kale smoothie. “Our daily customer roster in our West Hollywood stores reads like an award show invitation list,” says regional director Rodrick Silverman. www.earthbar.com
Elixir Juice BarHomebase: Connecticut
Elixir was bought as a distressed business in 2010, and since then, its new owners have gotten it back on track in a big way, with a new look and expansions. It now has 12 locations in New York and Connecticut, including juice bars in the swank Mercedes Club and Asphalt Green’s new downtown facility. In stores, you’ll find coolers of cold-pressed juices (no HPP here) as well as made-to-order juices and smoothies, which the brand is known for. They use organic produce, but not 100 percent, and food options are healthy but not staunchly vegan or raw. “We’re more mainstream, and we try to be flexible and offer options for everyone,” says owner Jon Shepard. www.elixirjuice.com
Evolution FreshHomebase: Washington
This Washington juice company was bought by Starbucks in 2011, and naturally, it’s headed towards world domination. It currently has just three stores in Washington and one in San Francisco, but the bottled goods have hit the shelves at its parent company’s ubiquitous locations and at Whole Foods (with a shipping-friendly shelf-life thanks to HPP). By the end of this year, it expects to be in 8,000 cafes and grocery stores in the United States. In terms of juice profile, Evolution Fresh’s tend to be slightly more entry-level for mass appeal—less green, more fruit. Some are certified organic; others are not. www.evolutionfresh.com
On JuiceHomebase: Boca Raton, FL
On Juice, which launched in 2012, has a South Florida fanbase that’s crazy for its 12 flavors (like Sublime, with parsley, spinach, green apple, lime, and ginger), and ten very popular specialty cleanses, including Bridal Prep,Hot Mama, and Complexion Cure. Everything is organic, unpasteurized, cold-pressed, and glass-bottled, explains Olga Kuzenkov, the cofounder of On Juice and its sister food-delivery company Deliver Lean. (It uses HPP.) The company is currently developing a vegan meal-delivery plan, raw snacks (kale chips!), and, down the road, hopes to open “an experience flagship store with a juice bar in front, and in the back we’ll sell juicers and teach people how to juice on their own,” says Kuzenkov. The company also says it wouldn’t mind opening a New York City kitchen. www.onjuice.com
Pressed JuiceryHomebase: Los Angeles
Pressed Juicery is the most widely known brand along the California Coast, with 17 locations from LA to Marin and four more slated to open soon. Some are full stores, others are kiosk-style. And the brand is establishing a broader national presence by gradually expanding its shipping radius and sending out both its popular cleanses and monthly “juice subscriptions.” It has also done an amazing job at tapping the wellness world for partnerships and promotions, like a current cleanse being “guided by” Jennifer Aniston’s yoga teacher Mandy Ingber, which comes with her book. Its juices are not organic and skew to the sweeter side, and be sure to watch the sugar since some bottles contain two servings (tricky!). www.pressedjuicery.com
Roots Pressed JuicesHomebase: Dallas
Roots acts homespun with its small-batch, no-HPP juices bottled by hand, but it’s turning out big flavor-forward blends like the Immune Booster (grapefruit, orange, red apple, jalapeno, and kale), and shipping them to fans across the country. Ditto its three cleanses, which start fruity and get progressively more veggie-forward. Roots also makes fortified waters, a few cocktail mixers, and a hangover recovery kit. (Hey, why not.) And after getting its bottles out via yoga and Pilates studios in Texas, Roots just opened its first store in Atlanta, and is plotting four more locations for its cold-pressed, organic juice blends in Florida, Colorado, and, yes, Texas. “We’re always researching new ingredients and creating new blends,” says COO Hanson Walker. We can’t wait to sip what’s next. www.rootspressedjuices.com
SujaHomebase: San Diego
It wasn’t long ago that that Annie Lawless was making juices for her yoga students and Eric Ethans was delivering them on a skateboard. Since then the USDA-certified organic company (with lots of investment) has blown up, pouring 10 juice varieties out of its SoCal hydraulic presses into Whole Foods stores across the country—in less than a year. (New Yorkers, you may have noticed the billboards.) Suja, which also sells cleanses, is largely focused on the possibility of “convenient nutrition.” And it drives home the concept by listing its ingredients on the bottle down to the heads of kale and number of carrots used (in addition to a regular ingredient list), and sees HPP as a life-force saving technology for raw juice preservation. “HPP not only safely extends the shelf-life but helps with retaining the produce’s vitamins, minerals, and enzymes,” says the company, which has such a fast-growing customer base, it’s dashed ahead of many older brands and become a major force on the juice scene. www.sujajuice.com
More Reading
The 10 best-selling juices from the top juice brands
Now you can drink your herbs and spices
Can the food industry handle our addition to kale?
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