How to Make Your Own Shrub Tonics
Post-holiday season, we’re reaching for refreshing tonics made with local shrubs—sweet and tart concoctions of fruit, sugar, and vinegar that stimulate the appetite while slaking thirst.
A Juice-Hater's Conversion at Juice Wave in Mission Beach
I don't like juice. Let's get that out of the way right up front. I find it either cloyingly sweet or too sour. I've always seen liquefied fruits and vegetables as empty calories that offer little satisfaction. I tried a juice cleanse once, a kind of punishment for my gluttonous life. It was so unpleasant, I got a migraine.
The last few years, I lived in the Middle East, where fresh juice and juice cocktails are the favored substitute for alcohol. I was offered juice at every house I entered. I spent those years stubbornly clutching to my seltzer water and guzzling tea.
But, as a food writer and editor, what I eat and drink is not always up to me.
Arleigh Rose runs a little juice shop in Mission Beach, which couldn't be more in line with the Edible mission if it had been conceived solely so we could write about it.
Arleigh is a trained chef who worked in fine dining all over the country, including stints at Michelin-starred restaurants, before packing up her knives taking a WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farms) position at Farmer Leo’s organic farm in Leucadia.
Surrounded by incredible produce, the wheels in her chef-mind began turning, imagining all the culinary possibilities. She started selling made-to-order juices from a food truck, sourcing her ingredients locally (except for her turmeric, which she gets from a family-run farm in Hawaii), using 100% compostable cups and straws, and turning her food waste into dog treats. She is a poster-girl for the local, sustainable food movement.
Which is why I, a juice hater, found myself standing alongside our associate editor on Mission Boulevard staring up at the Juice Wave storefront last week.
When we entered the shop, I was hit with the comforting smell of fresh-baked granola. Arleigh smiled up at me as she pulled a pan from the oven. She makes it fresh daily for her acai bowls and smoothies. I nibbled on a warm nugget of cinnamon-laced granola and looked at the menu board, my eyes drifting longingly to the coffee section.
We chatted as she made an almond milk-based smoothie for a customer, handing me a little sample of her made-from-scratch almond milk. It was light and refreshing; a total departure from the stuff you get in a carton at the grocery store.
She showed us her two juicing machines, one for cold-pressed juices that can be bottled and still retain their flavor and nutritional value for a few days, and her on-the-fly juicer, for made to order elixirs. I watched carrots, apples, oranges, turmeric, ginger, and celery disappear into the whirring beast, which extruded a thick, frothy orange beverage.
Alright, I thought, we'll sample this highly nutritious drink and be on our way.
Olivia and I took a seat at Arleigh's small counter. Bottles began to come out of the cooler and, before long, we were face to face with six juices and two immunity shots.
We were going to taste them all.
What came next was a bit of a blur. It was the way I imagine babies must feel as they encounter new foods for the first time: Surprising, exciting, an eye-opening revelation.
We started with the green juices. The Green One, made with kale, celery, cucumber, pineapple, parsley, ginger, and lemon, was herbaceous and refreshing. It did not taste like punishment. The other, which Arleigh described as the "next level up", was Supah Green, made with kale, romaine, celery, cucumber, parsley, spinach, and lemon. This green juice was like walking through freshly cut grass after a rainstorm, light and full of clean flavor.
The Orange Crush, which we had watched her make, was a delicate balance of earthy turmeric, spicy ginger, and a slight sweetness courtesy of the carrot and apple. It was autumn in a glass.
The Heat Wave was exactly what you'd want to drink on a summer afternoon, made with cucumber, pineapple, chia seed, cayenne, and Carlsbad alkaline water. The tartness and light sweetness were perfectly balanced, and the light tingle of cayenne woke the whole thing up. I felt energized after drinking it, imagining myself donning some yoga pants and heading to a barre workout on the way home.
Then we went down the rabbit hole. The Blue Healer is a carnival of color and flavor, a deep blue that shifts between turquoise and purple as you tip the bottle, this simple blend of fresh coconut water, Blue Majik spirulina (an algae), and good old Carlsbad alkaline water somehow tasted like cereal milk. That might sound gross, but try to imagine the distinct pleasure of tipping your bowl of Fruity Pebbles to sip on the milk that had magically been infused with hints of the sweet, tropical flavors. Someone more refined might be able to describe it better, but suffice to say, it was as fun to drink as it was to look at.
Our final juice was Beet It, a blend of beets, carrot, red apple, ginger, and lemon. It was like drinking candied beets; rich, earthy, and satisfying. I wanted to garnish it with some goat cheese. We asked her if she had added honey or some other sweetener, and she just laughed. It was all beet. She calls it her "dessert juice".
She then presented us with two shots: The entry-level Immunity Boost, made of lemon, orange, honey, and cayenne, and the Gold Digger, a punch in the face of ginger, lemon, turmeric, and black pepper. The first was so tart it made my eyes sweat. I could feel any hint of a cold running for dear life.
The second was an out-of-body experience. Earthy, spicy, sour, and in no way subtle. I felt invigorated. I no longer needed coffee (something I never thought I'd say).
Olivia and I divided up the remaining juices to take home, a gift from Arleigh. I selected Liquid Emerald, Heat Wave, Beet It, and Immunity Boost. I wanted them. Me, hater of juice, actually wanted to push my dear colleague out of the way and run out of the shop with ALL the juices.
They weren't the sad ghosts of produce past, but instead captured all the things I love about eating fresh, local fruits and vegetables, both in flavor and in the way they made me feel physically.
We write a lot about the benefits of eating locally and seasonally, so it really shouldn't have come as such a surprise that when that principle is applied to food in beverage form, the results would be markedly different.
When it comes to juice, there is nowhere to hide. There are no added seasonings or fats or sugars to level the playing field, so every ingredient tastes only of itself, making the bad ones really bad, and the carefully sourced and crafted beverages, like the ones at Juice Wave, something utterly spectacular.
Try Arleigh's Juices for Yourself
3733 Mission Boulevard, Mission Beach
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