Pressed Juicery
10878 Kinross Avenue
Los Angeles, Ca 90024
For those looking to change their eating habits and pursue a more organic lifestyle, Pressed Juicery might be an ideal place to start.
Pressed Juicery is a juice store that focuses on making organic products from vegetables and fruits. Having several other stores in Southern California, Pressed Juicery just opened a new location in Westwood.
The store occupies space on the corner of a brick building located on Kinross, an ideal location for a quick juice run. On the inside, simple green walls and wooden counters compliment their health philosophy with its clean and earth-friendly appearance. Designed in a grab-and-go style, the store doesn’t provide seating, instead offering immediate service operated by a staff.
The juicery promotes the idea of cleansing the body by using freshly pressed, completely unpasteurized juice. It provides combinations of specific juices called cleanse programs that suit different lifestyles based on diet, nutritional habits and exercise.
Cleansing refers to detoxing the body in order to increase energy and stamina and to improve the state of living by creating a natural uplifting feeling through purification foods. The Cleanse 1 selection is made primarily for customers who are new to cleansing, while Cleanses 2 and 3 are designed for more experienced customers.
Each of the cleanse programs are organized with specific drinks that are to be consumed each day, separated into different categories – greens, roots, citrus, water and fruits. Greens drinks are based with greenish vegetables, like spinach or celery, some with added undertones of fruit flavors like apple and lemon. Citrus drinks are primarily made up of fruits in the citrus family, roots drinks have ingredients like carrots and beets, and so on.
The concept along with the product provided by Pressed Juicery seems too good to be true – tasty drink plans to help kick-start a healthy new year – but everything good comes at a price.
Depending on the juice, the price can range from $6.50 to $8 for a 16-ounce bottle. Luckily, UCLA students get a 15 percent discount off their purchase, which drops the price range to around $5-$7.
But that price range only applies to individual drinks; cleanse programs prove to be much more costly. For in-store pickup, a single day cleanse kit comes to $48.50, with a three-day cleanse kit priced at $145. Even with a student discount, these can hardly be considered affordable to the typical student.
Despite the steep pricing, it seems like the products might actually be living up to their expectations of being very healthy drinks. For example, the Greens 2 drink, containing kale, spinach, romaine, parsley, cucumber, celery, apple and lemon, was extremely refreshing and different from most other comparable juices. Unlike Odwalla, the consistency is light and fragrant with a vegetative yet slightly sweet flavor profile.
The Roots 3 drink has a completely different flavor. Compiled of beet, apple, lemon and ginger, the flavor is much stronger and fragrant without being pungent. A constant beet and ginger overtone followed with a bright tartness from the apple and lemon create a harmony of flavors that seems to recur in each drink.
From the flavors to the idea, Pressed Juicery can’t be compared to mainstream juice stores like Jamba Juice. While Jamba does provide freshly pressed juice, its main focus is on smoothies that sometimes include ingredients like sherbet. Jamba also appeals to the masses with its larger stores and brightly decorated seating that is present in almost every chain, whereas Pressed Juicery is more for those who are looking for healthy alternatives to improve their diets, without the bells and whistles of mainstream marketing.
To those who consider health to be the No. 1 objective in life, Pressed Juicery’s set plans might be a good idea, but for those who consider juice to be a food product and just that, an individual drink once in a while would be better. Either way, Pressed Juicery should be commended for its tasteful drinks and health-conscious aim despite being a luxury to the average student.
– Jeein Shin
Email Shin at jshin@media.ucla.edu