Photo courtesy of South Block
Juices are popular this time of year.
Trying to ward off a cold? Get rid of a hangover? You might try a cold-pressed juice.
At Ease Yoga & Cafe in Del Ray, part of the vibe is grabbing a juice before your workout and maybe a bowl after to treat yourself. The juices are made by South Block, a locally owned cold-pressed micro-juicery, which delivers its fresh-squeezed goods six days a week from Falls Church.
What is cold-pressed juice? According to mindbodygreen.com, "the cold juice is bottled, sealed and put in a large chamber, which fills with water. A crushing amount of pressure is applied to inactivate pathogens." The process is designed to keep the juice fresh and vibrant longer than if you juiced the old-fashioned way.
One-half cup (4 ounces) of juice can be considered the equivalent of a single serving of fruits or vegetables, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Here's more about the benefits of drinking juice, from the group:
"As a rule of thumb, it’s important to shoot for consuming at least three servings of fruit and four servings of vegetables every day. However, since juice is not as high in fiber as whole fruit or vegetables, it's always best to consume the whole food whenever possible. It has been shown that diets higher in fiber are not only beneficial for protecting against a number of cancers and chronic illnesses, but also help you fill up so that you don't "fill out"—and maintaining a healthy weight is yet another way to ward off cancer."
"Juicing fruits and vegetables can be a great way for people who don’t enjoy eating lots of fruits and vegetables to bring these healthy foods into their routine—and the juicers that keep the fiber in the foods are best," the group notes. "Or, the fibrous end-product that juicers produce can be re-used (instead of discarded): shredded carrot roughage makes a salad topping, for example, or can be thrown into soups, stir-fries, or pasta sauces."
The most-ordered juices at Del Ray's Ease Yoga, at 3051 Mt. Vernon Ave., are the Cleanse and Cure juices, according to Stephanie Nguyen, marketing supervisor. The Cleanse juices come in a variety of flavors (and are broken down into "Easy Cleanse" and "Original Cleanse") along with tips on how to space them out if you're actually doing a cleanse. Half-pint juices usually run about $5 and the pints are $9.The "Easy Cleanse" varieties are:
- Detox: Cucumber + apple + kale + spinach + celery + parsley + lemon + ginger
- Glow: Pineapple + apple + fennel + aloe + lemon + mint
- Easy Greens - apple + celery + spinach + parsley + lemon
- Cure: Pineapple + carrot + lemon + cayenne + turmeric + ginger
- Renew: Carrot + apple + beet + kale + lemon + ginger
- Caveman Mylk: Cashews + H20 + vanilla + cinnamon + dates + pink himalayan sea salt
You can even order a South Block juice that purports to help with a hangover: Called "Activate," for the activated charcoal in the juice, other ingredients include apple, aloe and lemon. The activated charcoal is used to prevent toxins from being absorbed. (Here's more about drinking activated charcoal, from the folks at live strong.com.)
Other places you can find juice in Alexandria:
- Just down the road at Junction Bakery & Bistro, at 1508 Mt. Vernon Ave., you can order juice courtesy of another locally owned company, Grateful Juice, owned by Kimberly Landini. See their menu of juices here.
- You can also find juice at Killer ESP, at 1012 King St. in Old Town Alexandria.
- At MOM's Organic Market, at 3831 Mt. Vernon Ave., you can order the same juices available at the company's Naked Lunch cafe in Arlington; check out the juice menu here.
Know another place to find juice? Email maryann@alexandrialivingmagazine.com.
