When did you last eat the recommended nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day? If you’re struggling to come up with a date, local juicers Meagan DeLong and Erin Little at the Sunshine Juice Co. and Shaun and Molly Angel at Upgrade Café offer a convenient way to maximize nutrition.
Using organic fruits and vegetables, these juice companies create cold-press juices that are unpasteurized with no preservatives or additives, and contain all organic produce with the recommended serving you’re missing. Health benefits range from improved skin and energy to an overall better look and feel physically and mentally. Juicing can have positive effects such as lowering cholesterol levels, boosting immune systems, blood detoxifying, relieving insomnia and premature aging, and more. Cold-press juicing involves zero heat, which keeps the nutrients alive in the bottle.
“Everything is living and raw,” says Little as she works to seal bottles of freshly-made juice at Sunshine Juice Co., located in The Bitterman Mini Shoppes & Farmer’s Market at 204 Main St. “It has a short shelf life of only three to five days (refrigerated).”
Best friends Little and DeLong, both of Evansville, started juicing together in the summer of 2013 and opened their first Sunshine Stand at the Downtown Evansville Farmers Market. They began setting up the juice stand at festivals, events, and markets. Using Kickstarter, an online fundraising platform, the two friends raised nearly $20,000 to start their own full-time business. Sunshine Juice Co. opened in The Bitterman on Oct. 11 and “has grown faster than expected.”
Sunshine Juice currently sells five flavors including Sweet Green (organic romaine, apple, kale, and lemon), Dream Weaver (organic orange and carrot), Mean Green (organic celery, cucumber, green apple, kale, spinach, parsley, lemon, and ginger root), Pink Drink (organic grapefruit, red apple, beet root, strawberry, and ginger root), and Summer (watermelon, including rind, lime, and cilantro).
Upgrade Café, located in the Livewell facility in Jennings Station in Newburgh, Indiana, also offers several juice flavors including Green Lemonade (kale, cucumber, lemon, and green apple), Beet It (beet, carrot, celery, lemon, and ginger), Easy Being Green, (cucumber, celery, spinach, parsley, and green apple), Juice My Way (choose any four ingredients: kale, cucumber, lemon, green apple, beet, carrot, celery, ginger, spinach, and parsley), and Just Carrots (carrots only). In addition, the café sells protein shakes, smoothies, coffees, teas, as well as healthy food options.
“We are huge on taste,” says Shaun, who opened Upgrade Café with his wife in March 2013. The husband and wife team are both certified personal trainers and focus on health education at Livewell. “One thing we have realized is if the food doesn’t taste good, it’s hard for someone to stick with it. We want to upgrade the quality and the taste with the health of the ingredients.”
The local juice companies do not add water or sweeteners to any of their juices, which is often seen in juices bought off grocery store shelves.
“One of our biggest concerns before we started this was wondering if Evansville could support this business, but we’ve been astounded by the response,” says Little.
For more information about Sunshine Juice Co., call 812-568-5561 or visit sunshinejuiceco.com. For more information about Upgrade Café, call 855-843-3539 or visit mylivewellonline.com.
