The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink (Oxford Companions) by Andrew F. Smith

Author:Andrew F. Smith [Smith, Andrew F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2007-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Juice Bars

Juice bars, a billion-dollar business, began modestly in 1926 in Los Angeles when Julius Freed opened a shop selling fresh orange juice. His real estate agent, Bill Hamlin, a former chemist, suggested an all-natural mixture that gave the orange juice a creamy, foamy consistency. It contained orange juice, water, egg whites, vanilla extract, sugar, and ice. When Freed and Hamlin started selling the new beverage, sales soared from twenty dollars to one hundred dollars a day, and a name for the product arose from the way customers asked for the drink: “Give me an orange, Julius”. By 1929, Orange Julius had grown into a chain with one hundred stores in the United States.

The macrobiotic vegetarianism fad in the mid-1960s stirred up the juice-bar business with the creation of smoothies, originally a mixture of fruit, fruit juice, and ice sold in the back of health-food restaurants and stores. Steve Kuhnau started a health-food store in 1973, offering nutritious, energy-packed smoothies as an alternative to the ubiquitous high-fat food of New Orleans and to help resolve his own health problems. In 1987, Kuhnau and his wife, Cindy, cofounded one of the major smoothie companies, Smoothie King Franchises Inc. A competitor, Jamba Juice Company, began in 1990 in California as a store that offered fresh-fruit smoothies, fresh squeezed juices, bread, and pretzels.

By the end of the twentieth century, regional and independent juice bars had sprouted up across the country, often selling coffee, tea, sandwiches, bagels, soups, and salads, as well as juice. Juice bars became prominent at the front of many health-food restaurants and stores, health clubs, and chains such as Wild Oats Markets Inc. and Whole Foods Markets Inc. Mobile smoothie stations in carts and kiosks make the drinks even more available and less expensive to purvey.

Changes in American culture increased the growth of juice bars. With a faster pace of life consumers look for nutritious, convenient, portable snacks or meal replacements, and the aging population searches for an energy elixir as zealously as athletes seek fast replenishment after exercise. Beverages sold in juice bars are a good source of both dairy products and the recommended five-a-day servings of fruit and vegetables. They are often high in calories, ranging from 250 to over 500, many of which are from sugars. They also have a different nutrient combination than a complete meal does.

Juice bars try to make their drinks appealing with names such as Kiwi Berry Burner, Jamba Powerboost, and Bounce Back Blast. Juice bars serve beverages that may contain exotic fruit juices, organic juices, unusual Russian winter wheatgrass, seaweed, or vegetables. Many dessert-style smoothies contain milk; ice cream or ice milk; yogurt or frozen yogurt; sorbet; or soy, rice, or nut milk. Nutritional supplements may be added. Even tea and coffee are sometimes mixed with juice, fruit, and supplements.

In 2002, as the juice and smoothie business surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time, there were about 3,500 juice bars in the United States. Smoothie King and Jamba Juice dominate the industry, but Orange Julius, owned by International Dairy Queen Inc.

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