Let the juice wars begin

Jeff Gordinier (“The Juice-Bar Brawl”, New York Times) looks at the exploding juice business and the race for market share of this new lucrative beverage category. HPP, live enzymes and detoxing. Organic, soulful, healthful. They’ll claim the magic elixir to be the equivalent of consuming 6 pounds of healthy, often organic vegetables. And now there’s cold-pressing. Fans (or fanatics) argue that cold-pressing beats (often with beets) the industrial old-school juicer because the produce is not “cooked” by the heat of the rotary blades. Heat apparently diminishes the nutritional value. Pasteurization or the new pressure pasteurization is also a bone of contention among the key players. The competitive landscape has moved way beyond the hippie dippie west coast operators of years past.  Starbucks has acquired its own line (Evolution Fresh) and is preparing for a larger scale rollout. Danny Meyer, New York restaurateur extraordinaire, is launching Creative Juice, initially with Equinox gyms and later, as stand-alone shops. With the astute accomplished Mr. Meyer, comes the chef-like ingredients such as cacao nibs, Bosc pear, shiso leaves, blood-orange marmalade and dried Black Mission figs. Organic Avenue has staked a claim of the pie with rapid expansion and bigger-budget marketing efforts courting the weight-obsessed fashion crowd. This is obviously only the beginning, but we certainly like the healthy direction. Certainly applaud the new branding and marketing work up for grabs. So, let’s all chill and think to drink our greens…