In recent years, the rise in public health consciousness has created a demand for many businesses to serve the growing number of health seeking folks.

Cold pressed juice bars have become popular in many urban areas, offering the highest quality juices made fresh on site to customers seeking vibrant and nourishing fare. Back when we were living in Taos, New Mexico, I was asked by a former coworker if I’d be interested in helping start a raw juice bar.

I was definitely game.

From years of experience as a health conscious vegan, I had a solid grasp on creating and crafting foods from plants. I had also worked on a production wheatgrass operation and on farms where I experimented juicing copious quantities of extra produce. When I was asked to build the menu and set up wheatgrass production I was really excited!

The deal was I had 2 weeks to build a menu from scratch. 2 weeks! This kicked up my creative juices in full force! It was a new start up business called Raw Taos and the owner and manager weren’t very educated about juices and living foods. I took this as a magnificent challenge and started blending mixes immediately to create a dozen unique cold pressed juices from organic fruits and vegetables. I prepped, juiced and blended for hours to hone the flavor profiles and create balanced blends.
In addition to juices, I created 4 mylk (non dairy milk) blends (one of which is the Horchata recipe below!), mate lattes and cold brew coffee.

It was definitely a whirlwind, but I had a lot of fun and drank a ton of juice. I happily got the wheatgrass operation set up, trained new employees and oversaw the initial phase of workflow as Raw Taos opened it’s doors for business. I certainly learned a lot about crafting and scaling up drink recipes, multitasking and working well on a timeline. It was stressful at times, but I am very happy I said yes to the experience.

As people started coming in, it began to feel real! People were interested in the experience of being at a Raw Juice Bar that juiced fresh every day and the vibrancy their bodies felt from our living products. Wren was the social media guru and marketed it successfully online and with local news. Soon enough, our doors were flooded with people!

Ultimately, we left Taos and this awesome start-up to venture to the Ozarks to start our homestead (although we definitely loved much about Taos, the elevation, short summers, issues with water rights and lack of affordable accessible land sent us on to the greener pastures of the Midwest!).

We keep the memory of this experience treasured in our hearts and bellies as the menu keeps on giving (much of it is contained in my book on sprouting, which you can get here.)

Here’s one of the recipes that was a major hit:

Horchata:

A traditional refreshing beverage from Mexico traditionally made with tiger nuts and honey, but currently made with cow’s milk, white sugar, white rice seasoned with cinnamon and vanilla. Served cold and garnished with cinnamon, horchata is light and satisfying.

Ingredients:

· 4 C / 1 L water
· ½ C / 125 ml raw almonds
· 2-4 Tbsp / 30-60 ml honey, agave or maple syrup (to taste)
· 1 tsp / 5 ml vanilla extract or ½ vanilla bean (use insides only)
· ½ tsp / 2.5 ml true cinnamon powder (aka saigon cinnamon)

Process:

Step 1: Soak

Soak almonds eight to twelve hours.

Step 2: Drain

Thoroughly wash soaked almond. Remove skins if desired.

Step 3: Blend

Add almonds and ½ C - 125 ml water and blend, slowly adding water.

Step 4: Strain

Place in bag or cheesecloth and squeeze as much of the liquid out as possible. Use pulp for cookies, crackers or breads.

Step 5: Season

Add remaining ingredients and sweeten to taste. Serve chilled with a sprinkling of cinnamon to garnish.

Thanks for reading! This post is a part of the ecotrain! Check it out for more consciousness raising posts!