The Fresh Juice Bar Era

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Facundo Gomez pours a freshly blended smoothie at Juice Event, a Seattle area juice bar. Juices often serve as bases for herbal add-ins, which by themselves can have an unpleasantly strong taste. Rod Mar/Seattle Times

Summertime Smoothie 

The time: the early 1960s. The country’s mood: playful. Think sand, surf, sun, and a smoothie—fruit juice blended into a beverage as fun as the Beach Boys.

Fast forward to the 1990s. The mood: healthful. Think wide open spaces, meditation, sunscreen, and still a smoothie—this time with alternative variations, including shots of herbal extracts and names such as “Liver Flush,” “Mood Buster,” and “Mellow Out.”

It’s the era of the juice bar. Not the kind that comes in a wrapper, but the kind with barstools, blenders, and herbal supplements—a phenomenon born of Southern California and once “fringe” health-food stores.

During the past few years, the juice bar has nuzzled its way into the American lunch and snack crowds, setting up shop in airports and shopping malls, even edging into conventional eateries such as Baskin-Robbins and Taco Bell in some parts of the country.

“Baby boomers have started to grow up and realize that what they put into their bodies is going to impact how their bodies are going to perform,” says Mark Siebert, president of Francorp, Inc., an Illinois-based management consulting firm. “The fast food they were eating in the past, while it may have been very ­convenient, wasn’t particularly good for them.”

To that end, Siebert says, juice bars aim to offer both healthy food and convenience. And herbs play a big role in each benefit, adds research analyst Lisa Lazarus. At many juice bars, herbs come in “shots” (about a dropperful) that cost $1 to $1.50 apiece to “power up” smoothies—frothy drinks that are a blend of fruits or vegetables, juice, ice, and perhaps yogurt or sorbet.

“Almost all of the juice bars offer some type of herbal addition—energy boosters, immune-enhancers, weight-loss herbs, ­different combinations,” Lazarus says. “They’re playing into major common trends of health consciousness” by offering “quick, whole-meal replacement”—­industry jargon for lunch in a cup.

Lazarus traces the origins of the juice-bar craze to the smoothies of the 1960s surf crowd and to Starbucks, the national coffee-bar chain. Coffee bars have taught the public about “premium-priced products”—the $2.50-per-cup gourmet drink that has replaced the 25-cent gulp popular ten or more years ago. Juice bars aim to capitalize on this trend, with juice blends and smoothies starting at $2.50 and ranging up to $5 for 24 ounces, including a shot or two of herbs.