The Village Juicery

I don’t know about you, but drinking enough fluids in the winter is HARD. Nothing makes me want to increase my coffee consumption like a nice -22 C day and my corner of the world has had quite a few of those lately.

In the spirit of keeping my hydration levels up during winter, I have turned to putting lemons and limes in my water, adding Nuun hydration tablets to my water and trying healthy juices.

The Village Juicery invited me to pop round their new location the last time I was in Toronto and in the spirit of taking down less coffee that day, I was excited to stop by. Located at 540 College St, Toronto, it is a bright, sunny shop full of colourful juices, healthy snacks and plenty of resources.

Angela and I wanted to try their juices and they led us through a standard guest experience, lining up their juices and pouring them into little shot glasses for us to try from the most mild juice to the most dessert tasting of them all (which obviously was my favourite one). One of the most impressive things about the shop was that the juice barista (I made that up right now. It replaced coffee for me, so it works) is a certified health nutritionist and we were encouraged to ask any questions we wanted. Not only do you get a sunny welcome and a sampling of delicious juices, but you get to have nutritional advice as well.

We tried all of the available flavours and had a conversation about high pressure pasteurization or HPP. Hold up..what?

HPP 411

– Packaged shelf products are put under a high pressure treatment that extends their shelf life by 10 times
– Applied to most juices in plastic bottles, this inactivates vegetative flora like bacteria, viruses, moulds, parasites AND the good gut-friendly bacteria in the juice
– Bottom line? You are drinking dead juice.

What is different about Village Juicery?

– They never use HPP (phew!) LIVING JUICE. This means you need to drink it in 3 – 5 days.
– They are 100% organic. If they are out of stock on an item that belongs in their juice, they go temporarily out of stock.
– They are local. Everything is sourced and made in Toronto. Even their delicious in-house snacks are from fellow Toronto companies.

We tried the entire line of juices including a really yummy green juice called Be Clean, a blend of kale, celery, Granny Smith apples, parsley, romaine lettuce, cucumber, dandelion greens and lemon.

I am not an advocate for juice cleansing, but I like this juice as an add on to an already healthy diet to increase the veggies in an athlete’s diet and decrease inflammation.

One of my favourites was Be Active, which was a mixture of Pear, Beet, Apple, Ginger and Lemon. I love the ginger for winter time training because it helps keep sickness at bay while the beets help to increase the nitrates in your blood and increase endurance. Don’t believe me? Check out my article on it here. It was delicious and was a spicy/sweet drink that was perfect before my morning workouts this week.

I love that they list their ingredients in the order that they appear and on the back, it helpfully shows the ratio of veggies, roots and fruits used in the drinks so you can monitor your intake depending on your goals.

And then, there is the crowning winner of my juice experience. Be Happy, a mixture of cashews, alkaline water, dark maple syrup, pink salt, and cacao nibs. Yep. You drink this sweet golden nectar and are left with chocolate to crunch on. It was subtly sweetened and wasn’t too over powering making it a satisfying and delicious (yes, I’ll say it..) replacement for coffee. This was gone in no time at my place!

I loved the big, warm welcome from the Village Juicery and look forward to returning when I am back in Toronto. If you are wanting to check it out, they are having a party on Saturday January 24th between 1 and 4pm at their flagship location (540 College St, Toronto). Head over for the same rockstar treatment that Ange and I were given!

What is your favourite juice blend?
Crunchy things in your drink? Yes or no?