Hi everyone! I bought my juice business about 6 months ago from a lady that had been in business for about 4 years. I feel like I have mastered the mass production of juice by the bottle and its going great! However, customers are daily asking when we will be able to juice by the glass and have it made in front of them. I am ready to start moving in that direction and need any tips you have! What is the best way to transition into this? My main questions are:
What is the best way to portion out the produce for such a small amount of juice? I am using the X-1 and weigh out recipes and juice all ingredients together but am making much much larger quantities, obviously.
Any recommendations on where to find the best cups and lids? I have found a few vendors but all seem to have a pretty high cost.
Would it be better to juice all ingredients separately in the morning and then pour and mix for the customer?
Will you be making custom juices or are they preset recipes? That will make a big difference for how you can prep.
I’ve seen a few juice bars do this “mix to order” approach where thew pre-made juice is mixed per order and I don’t think it’s been too successful. The customer doesn’t feel as though it’s truly fresh, as compared to actually juicing making it in front of the customer.
If you’re committed to doing cold-press, you can make the X-1 Mini work for made to order, however it takes some planning. I would recommend having it on a counter that has a drain built in so you can spray the machine down right in place to make cleaning fast and easy.
We juice “on-demand” with a Zummo commercial centrifugal juicer. I have a great sign that explains the benefits of cold-pressed vs. centrifugal, but some people are stuck on wanting it to be juiced in front of them. We have a buffet style cooler next to the on-demand juicer where we can juice our recipes and serve in a glass.
Here are a couple sketches my friend kenny lao did. In this example there is a refrigerator underneath to store produce. There’s also a trash bin to toss the juice pulp for composting.
The idea is that the whole table is made of stainless and has a sprayer and a drain built in, so everything can be washed down right in place without taking it to a sink.
I had our designer Chris draw a similar table so I could get one custom fabricated, but having trouble getting a fab shop to quote the project for me. This is a more basic table without a fridge but still has the sprayer and a drain.
Note that the top is pitched slightly so the water will drain.
If you want the PDF of this drawing let me know and I can send it to you.
I will look deeper into this, and I want to research my options for what is on the market. This sketch sparked some other ideas about the workflow of the kitchen. This drawing was extremely helpful.
We offer a Build Your Own Juice option for customers that want it made in front of them. I found an individual, small batch cold-pressed juice machine that is NSF. It is the Ceado CP-150. We have had great success with it and we charge a $2 premium for this option due to the labor involved. We found out it is important to manage customer’s expectations and tell them that the process does take a few minutes, more so than a centrifugal juicer.
The ceado is not a press, so althouth they refer to it as a cold press juicer I don’t think that’s correct. The product it makes is very different than the juice made on a real press. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with juice made on a “slow juicer” but it shouldn’t be referred to as a cold-press in my opinion.
For the sake of real cold pressed juices and companies that work hard to make them…PLEASE do not refer to that juicer and the juice is makes as “cold pressed”.
There is no heat differential, as a condition of my purchase was to measure the temperature from the produced juice. It is the same heat variation as the X-1 Mini, which is to say negligible. It has a 70 RPM versus your standard Breville unit of 6,500 RPM or higher, which is a difference of 2 orders of magnitude, thus much higher heat generation.
It may not have moving platens in the traditional cold-pressed juicer, so the “pressed” aspect of the machine may be incorrect, but one could make the case that the augur action in combination with the mesh extracts juice in a pressing action.
I feel the juice from a real press is superior compared to an auger type in taste and mouth-feel, but I realize I have a built-in natural bias because of my family business.
In the end, fresh juice is still fresh juice no matter how it’s made.
I would just like to congratulate Tom @VirtueJuiceBar , founder of Virtue Juice Bar for pulling this off. They have been open for a couple days now doing made-to-order juice on two X-1 Minis seems to be working well.
I spent a day with them in Vacaville recently before they opened and it’s really a nice operation. Nice job Tom! Their instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtuejuice/
Many thanks Charlie! We’re closing in on our first 30 days and I’m just coming up for air. Yes! Our process to make cp juice by the glass, made to order is working well. Juice continues to be our leading category in sales. Looking forward to sharing more with everyone at JuiceCon 2! It’s going to be here before we know it - can’t wait!
I believe Liquiteria has done this for years (Pressed and offered Centrifugal). Personally I don’t want to store added Organic Produce for this “made to order” concept. I might reconsider when GoodNature builds the X-1/2 to do just that at the bar. But until then why would we want to make an inferior juice to Cold Pressed?
