Pressed Juice... But Make It Black Woman Owned
When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2016, during my first week of work at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, I was sitting in the employee break room while my fellow contemporary clothing co-workers talked about this new fad: juicing. Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
photo: Prism Juice Bar
“Juicing is just a trend.”
One of my co-workers, on the meatier side with black-framed glasses and heat-damaged stringy hair, sipped on one of her juices out of the 25-pack from Pressed Juicery. A rather clean cut Hispanic guy said to her, “oh, you’re on that trend now?” Another co-worker then chimed in thru her overly-injected lips, “I mean… it works, you’ll lose weight.. but you’ll gain it all back once you start eating again.” And then others started adding their two cents in.
“Oh, I know, I know.. They have a special going on right now though that you can’t beat, it’s totally worth giving it a try,” the chunkier girl defended her lunch.
Then there’s me, sitting there clueless. New to LA, I had never heard of the infamous Pressed Juicery, the beacon-of-health brand started in a broom closet in Brentwood back in 2010. (Now, when I visit home, you can find Pressed Juicery shots and beverages on grocery store aisles, but when I was living down South, it hadn’t made its way there yet.)
Always inquisitive, I asked the heavy set girl questions about this new pressed juicing thing. One thing people generally know about the South, even if they’ve never been, we eat good down there, baby.
“That sounds miserable,” I told her at the thought of not consuming solid food for days. How do you not die when only drinking liquids? I wondered. She shared with me the limited information she had about your body being able to get all the nutrients it needs to sustain itself from the fruits and vegetables the juice was pressed from.
Since then, I still haven’t gone into the deep end of Los Angeles wellness lifestyle with a juice cleanse, but I’ve definitely become a pressed juice fanatic!
Pressed juices are delicious and nutritious.
Do I believe that your body can get everything you need from a liquid-only diet? Hm, I don’t know about that one. There are plenty of arguments against juicing, and fasting, as well as there are arguments for it. I’m not on either side, but what I do know is that a bottle of organic cold-pressed juice is better for you than a can of Coca Cola!
My name is T.K., I’m Black and I don’t like Kool-Aid.
Don’t take my Black card, but Kool-Aid is one of the most disgusting beverage concoctions humans ever created. And no, this isn’t me becoming LA and losing touch with my roots. Outside of a cold cup, I have never liked Kool-Aid. While all the other kids were getting fussed for drinking up all the Kool-Aid, I was just trying to collect some quarters to walk to the store and get me a tea. (Or, when I stayed with my Teedie Terri, my mother’s baby sister, I’d get fussed for drinking hers. “I bought the Capri Suns and Kool-Aid for y’all [kids]!” But Teedie, I don’t like that.)
I’ve never been a fan of cold drinks (soda) either. All through college, I only kept water and milk in my apartment, and only ordered water when out to eat. In addition to being a broke college kid, I didn’t like juice.
I don’t like juice.
Or, so I thought. It took me over a year of living in L.A. to get on the pressed juice train. I tend to be resistant to anything that seems too trendy.
One of my longstanding girlfriends from Louisiana came to visit and we walked from my house to the local health foods grocery store, where she bought a juice she’d never seen. This girl wouldn’t stop going on and on and on about how good that orange juice was and how she had never had a juice that tasted that good. “Girl, you’re going to have mail me some of this! Whew!” An eye accompanied my response, “Taylor, you’re being dramatic.” I can’t trust your opinion if you think Kool-Aid tastes good. After she’d gone back home, I walked past this magical beverage she’d raved about and decided to give it a try for myself. Baby, when I tell you, I don’t know how this had been so close to me for so long and I’d been missing out, but I’ve been making up for it ever since!
Black Owned Pressed Juice Businesses in Los Angeles
photo: Essence
If you don’t know, keep visiting this Los Angeles lifestyle blog and you’ll come to find out, when I like something, I like it even more when it’s coming from a Black-owned business. (Because when I overspend, I can remedy my feelings of being broke with the fact that at least my money went towards circulating dollars within the Black community.)
From patronizing Black-owned restaurants, to checking in with Black businesses on Instagram, here are a few pressed juicery companies owned by Black women that I have personally come across around LA.
1987 Juices
I met LaKeasha Brown, owner of 1987 Juices, a 21Ninety summer conference pre-COVID. The marketplace was probably the most beneficial part of the entire conference, being exposed to all sorts of Black businesses based in Los Angeles that I didn’t even know existed (like a Black-owned moisturizer for your lady parts).
As titled in the Essence.com article on her, she’s a “Black woman on a mission to change lives.. one juice at a time.”
On her website, you can order a 3-day or 5-day cleanse, which is made up of a preselected batch of juices. Or, you can add individual cold pressed juices to your basket.
website: www.1987juices.com
phone: 747 238 4012
location: the valley
photo: VoyageLA
Prism Juice Bar
This business was sent to me by one of my girlfriends from Louisiana, but I can’t remember whom. I’ve been keeping up with her on Instagram and look forward to coming across her in-person around LA.
On her website, she allows clients to shop by category: detox, refresh, and restore.
website: prismjuicebar.com
phone: 323 508 5200
location: the valley
photo: Prism Juice Bar
Apryl's Life In A Bottle
I was having lunch at a Black-owned restaurant in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles when I picked up one of these unfamiliar bottles. I’d eaten at that restaurant, Hot and Cool Cafe, many times and never noticed it. The cold pressed juice I usually get was gone, and I jump at the chance of trying new cold pressed juices anyway. Boy, am I glad I did! I got the spicy lemonade and it was an invigorating little delight. That was yesterday, and as I type this, I’m ready to go ride my bicycle back over to Degnan Blvd for lunch again to have some more.
During the owner’s feature on NBC LA’s Channel 4 News, the owner talked about her pursuit of “community preservation through cooperative economics, health education, and UNIVERSAL access to God’s natural wonders.”
website: aprylslifeinabottle.com
location: East LA
Amped Kitchens
6130 Avalon Blvd
Los Angeles, California 90003
United States
Apryl Sims, owner of Apryls’ Life in a Bottle | photo: Inglewood Today
Okay girl, go dive into juicy goodness!
Keep your eyes peeled for other Black girl goodness around LA, and drop anything you find in the comment section below. These are only a few pressed juicery business based in Los Angeles that I found without even trying, so I’m sure there’s more. It’s fruits and vegetables, can never have too much, right?!
I’ll keep you informed on other Black-owned businesses I come across around LA in the “while in Los Angeles… buy Black” section of this website (yes, click on the colored text). Check back often!
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