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Jamba Juice introduces cold-pressed juices in Southern CaliforniaJamba Juice introduces cold-pressed juices in Southern California

Chain is planning a national rollout for 2015

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 23, 2014

2 Min Read
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Jamba Juice has expanded its menu with the introduction of cold-pressed juices.

The 854-unit smoothie chain started offering 12-ounce bottles of cold-pressed juice in Southern California on September 16 and plans to unveil them in the northern part of the state in mid-October.

“Our expansion to cold-pressed juice reaffirms our commitment to making healthier beverages more accessible to consumers,” said James D. White, Jamba, Inc. chairman, president and chief executive, in a press release. “Drinking juice made from only fruit and vegetables is an easy way to satisfy one’s daily produce requirement. Our cold-pressed juice[s] are both nutritious and delicious.”

The new juices, which are made using high pressure pasteurization rather than heated pasteurization used for most juices sold at retail, are slated to be available systemwide in 2015. Prices will be similar to the current made-to-order juices, which vary based on location.

Cold-pressed juices at Jamba Juice locations in Los Angeles are currently $5.39, according to a local operator. That is roughly the price-point for Starbuck’s cold-pressed Evolution Fresh juices. A Jamba Juice spokesman said the identity of the company manufacturing the cold-pressed juice for them was confidential.

Starbucks bought premium juice company Evolution Fresh Inc. in 2011, signaling its entry into the cold-pressed juice business, which until then had been mainly the province of juice-focused shops and small chains catering to health enthusiasts in Southern California and New York, where a bottle of cold-pressed juice can cost in excess of $10.

Emeryville, Calif.-based Jamba Juice started testing made-to-order juices in late 2012 and had them at 508 locations as of July 1 this year. Cold-pressed juice advocates claim that, by not heating the juice, more micronutrients are preserved.


The new juices are available in four flavors:
•  Orange Reviver: orange, banana, apple, beet and banana
•  Tropical Greens: apple, pineapple, lemon and “super greens” comprised of organic baby spinach, organic red and green chard and organic kale.
•  Citrus Kick: orange, pineapple apple and ginger
•  Veggie Harvest: apple, carrot, ginger and super greens

Contact Bret Thorn: [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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