Ingredient Spotlight: The Thrilla of Vanilla and its Sad Organic State

June 30, 2017 By Jen Chase

Organic vanilla is having a moment, and unlike the actual Thrilla in Manila between prize scrappers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, not much cheering will emerge from this story.

As of this writing, the world is massively short on organic vanilla beans, making them massively expensive. The cause? To understand…a short ag-lesson.

Similar to harvesting things like saffron threads and poppy seeds (not to be confused with milk of the poppy, for all Game Of Throners), vanilla beans are one of the most labor-intensive foods on the planet, according to this June 17 NPR feature. Orchids produce vanilla bean seeds, and if flowers are not naturally pollinated (and in some parts of the world they are not), pollination must be done by hand much like how U.S. crops have needed help from pollination farmers in light of the bee plight.

From pollinating, to harvesting, to soaking, to all kinds of other ing-verbs that have to happen to result in a vanilla bean being born, the months-long manual labor exceeds most expectations and leads to why vanilla is so damn ‘spensive. As a result, a whole lotta fake vanilla started being made under the not-so-crafty name “vanillin,” which smelled good yet tasted like bunk…but was so much cheaper than the real stuff, it was a way for butchers, bakers and vanilla-stuff makers to flavor their goods without going broke. But when more and more companies started opting for all-natural flavors, vanillin was out and vanilla was in…except that there haven’t been enough orchid plants to support the world’s craving for chocolate’s cousin.

Add to all the above an organic designation to the mix, and prices really skyrocket: In the last few years, it’s all but quadrupled.

#DilemmaOfVanillicPorportion

So, what’s The Juice Standard been doing about v-beaning products with the quality of vanilla you’ve come to depend on? In days of recent past, organic vanilla beans have been so hard to source, the only sub deemed suitable by Jamie and Marcella has been conventional vanilla beans (…beecause even liquid organic vanilla extract can’t compare to the warm depth lent by a bean, the whole bean and nothing but the bean).

“It was a difficult decision to switch to conventional, especially beecuase we have built a business whose cornerstone is using organic produce 100 percent of the time,” shares TJS Co-Founder and CEO Jamie Stephenson.

Nothing shows off our vanillovin’ like our nut milks, and Bee Magnificent is da vanillabomb.

“We felt, however, that we would be doing our clientele a bigger disservice by not providing the quality our products are known for—especially our creamy nut milks—beecause even we love seeing those floating vanilla-bean specs as we sip! That’s why after interviewing many of our customers, we learned they would rather we inform them of our choice to use conventional vanilla beans rather than simply discontinue product, or move to extract.

“We value 100 percent transparency…and clearly, our customers do, too.”

That said, last week, TJS caught a beany break when Jamie and Marcella found organic vanilla beans priced at 40 percent higher than typical organic pricing, but far less than recent costs for conventional vanilla beans. Course, the world’s still in a shortage, so TJS can only tap this source for six weeks until the farm we’ve partnered with runs out, too…but at least that’s six more weeks of vanilla bean specs as we’ve all grown accustomed.

Our point in all this sharing? Like Jamie says, TJS hearts transparency, and having these worldwide convos close to home is important in our adult understanding of where our food comes from, and it’s important if we wanna help the littletons in our lives to better understand why global warming; supply and demand; and taking care of Mama Nature is so important to the food we eat, too.

As for vanilla, we’re gonna keep bringing you the good stuff as long as we can. And when the big-O runs out, we’ll move to conventional for as long as it takes before we can get back on track. And as long as you can see those bitty brown flecks of goodness in every nut milk you open, know that we’re looking out for the best interest of your tastebuds, too…one nutritious sip at a time.

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TJS News: Our Year In Review

January 8, 2017 By Jen Chase

Haters gonna hate, Bees, but if you know The Juice Standard, you know that’s not our jam.

Peaks and valleys prevailed in 2016, for sure…but in these early new-year’s days of self reflection, we’re unabashedly proud of what we accomplished last year, and most of it had to do with your support.

How? Think about it: Like plants, puppies and our BFF’s endless obsesh with Wentworth, things grow when they’re fed. And as with those three awesome things, thanks to your passion and pride for TJS products made from 100 percent organic produce (and our team’s dedication to ensuring everything you sip and chew is as delish and delish can be), when you’ve wanted more, we’ve given more.

Simba. Mufasa. It’s the circle of life, Bees.

In the opening of one of the articles in December’s newsletter we hinted at our inception story. And because we can be suckers for those TV retrospectives that kick off a new year, here’s a glimpse of what went down the TJS way last year in hopes it’ll tantalize you to stick with us as we bloom and blossom in 2017.

January

In the first clip of the year, the Las Vegas Review Journal included TJS in its roundup of juiceries to celebrate Fresh Squeezed Juice Week (which this year falls on Jan. 23, so get ready). Also in January, we lifted the cone of silence on what had been worked on for months: the makings of a new TJS at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. February was shaping up to be a stellar month….

February

Yep: February brought the opening of The Buzz—what we affectionately call our location at The Cosmopolitan. Seemed like a fantasy—bringing cold-pressed juice to the Strip that was pressed that very morning at 5 a.m.—and in short order we were totally welcomed by the morning crowd, pool crowd and Marquee crowd looking to imbibe a little differently.

In February we also got a little shout out from Al Mancini at Vegas Seven for something we hold near and dear: TJS’s shots and how amazeballs they are at fighting the cold and the flu. (I mean we know this stuff, but having it promoted by others is bomb.) And for something totally fun and different, our co-founder and CEO Jamie Stephenson was a guest on this rockin episode of the Downtown Podcast (which you can enjoy on YouTube).

Proud? The way she commanded that stage? You bet. Look at her.

March

March marked a few shifts for TJS, especially in the kind of info we decided we wanted to bring to you, our bees.

For starters, we used our newsletter space “From The Humble Bee” to explain our shift toward calling our juice cleanses juice fasts, instead. (Don’t remember? Read about it here.) And March marked our first time delving into what at the time seemed like a relatively quiet convo that was mostly taking place behind closed doors.

Bathroom doors.

In Poo and You, through great graphics and straight talk we edged toward making our gut-health—and the ever-present notion that what goes in must come out and it shouldn’t be embarrassing when it does—seem not so taboo.

TJS also got its first national press hit (thank you MasterCard™) when we were recognized as a notable juicery in the increasingly WHealthy™ city of Las Vegas (#ItTakesAHive) along with friend Shane Stuart, now the owner and founder of Panacea.

It was a good month.

April

April was big for one delicious reason: TJS started hyping the cold-pressed cocktails launched and served at The Buzz at The Cosmopolitan (and only at The Cosmopolitan). In the piece Less Is More, we announced that from April on, bees looking to marry taste and WHealth™ could do it with cocktails made from the most luscious mixers on the Strip: our made-fresh-daily juices and nut milks pressed from 100 percent organic produce.

May

May brought us a chance for members of the TJS Team—founders Marcella Williams and Jamie Stephenson; TJS’s Creative Director Mallory Dawn; and Content Director Jen Chase—to shine a light of mother-lovin’ love on the women who helped shape us in this, the first, first-person narrative feature in our newsletter. We used the feature We Are Motherlovers to also salute the Las Vegas mums who choose to make TJS a part of their parenting prowess.

June-July-August

Despite its rich pool life, summer in Las Vegas is the slowest of the seasons beecause it’s so damn hottt, so our focus was on maintaining calm, coolness and getting the hell outta dodge. The calm was introducing you all to maca, one of our fave adaptogens; Juicing Across The Map showed off where we like to go for juice when the going gets steamy in the city; and our Summertime Slimdown gave you the skinny on how to stay just that by chewing and sipping your way through our menu.

And beecause Vegas is nothing if not built on the ol’ “and-not-or” concept, to create a little party-esque buzz of our own, August brought us our first ever Customer Appreciation Night, where we served sips and bites and had Daniel Park play for all to enjoy.

September

Two words were the highlight of September: Robin Leach. (Okay, five: Robin Leach and Marcella Williams.)

Every summer, Mr. Leach travels to faraway lands leaving his column space in the Las Vegas Review-Journal open for hand-picked space fillers. Last year it was Jamie. This summer, Marcella revealed her touching come-to-juicing story by way of motherhood in this first-person narrative all about her.

We also got our first Thrillist hit thanks to prolific Vegas writer Rob Kachelriess, and we were thrilled that the beeautiful-in-and-out Ms. Andrea Bennett at Vegas magazine sought TJS fit to add to her list of ways to #DetoxBeforeRetox in Las Vegas. #Proud.

Even more pride-worthy was the massive overhaul to the TJS chewable menu which now features avo-breads, updated chia seed puddings and more plant-based sweet treats that help balance your desires for food that tastes good while it’s doing good.

It was a super-good summer.

October-November-December

Fall is one of the most amazing food-and-drink times in Las Vegas, beecause creative culinarians and mixologists like Marcella and her Bee Team have to balance our near-intrinsic humanoid bent toward fall’s root veggies, warm spices and pumpkin-all-the-time ‘tude no matter how temperate the weather stays.

This fall marked the return of last year’s Harvest Spice Bee Invincible; a host of delicious hot cacao drinks that blow the tops off conventional hot chocolate; and with the legalization of marijuana, we juice-u-cated you bees about the benefits of CBD oil…our most recent superfood upgrade that can now be added to juices, nut milks, cacaos, and espresso drinks, at both of our neighborhood stores.

The end of December brought other clips, too. Jamie and Marcella were invited to be interviewed for the venerable business e-newsie published by Crain’s where they shared an experience in small-business ownership (a BFD for women in a predominantly male-oriented pub). And Women’s Health magazine highlighted TJS as a great tool to have in your toolbox for staying fit in Las Vegas.

So, yes: It was an amazing year of firsts…new stores, new menu items, new courage to lean into the hard discussions, new partnerships, and new friends.

Honestly, sitting down with a calendar and reflecting like this, month by month, is something we all can do when we need a gut check about our accomplishments…and it doesn’t always have to be in January. Large companies do it all the time to evaluate, but a personal check-in—or one for a growing business like TJS—is sometimes exactly what you need for a little self-soothing gratitude, as well as for planning your company (or life’s) next steps.

One thing’s for certain: It would be zero fun to do all this without the support, feedback and juicy love all the bees that visit us at The Rose (St. Rose Parkway), The Hive (on Ft. Apache) and The Buzz (at The Cosmopolitan). We only exist beecause of you, and we’re thrilled to see what 2017 will bring.

Ingredient Spotlight: CBD Oil

November 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

What exactly is CBD oil and why should you add it to your diet? Below, the oil of cannabis excellentis is explained.

When this newsletter hits the e-presses, Nevada’s fingers-crossed legalization of the recreational use marijuana on Nov. 8 could mean widespread regulation of a substance already enjoyed by throngs of Las Vegans. (It would also come with a healthy 15 percent tax to go toward enforcing the letters of the law, and be earmarked for school improvement.) But the legalization would mean more than just having the right to toke up without needing a prescription.

What Question 2 Means To You

As evidenced by the media coverage in the last few years about cannabis as a treatment for cancer and uncontrolled seizure activity, cannabinoids—aka, the name for some 85 components in cannabis that make weed, weed—have significant and proven health benefits…even for those of us without diagnoses as threatening as the ones just mentioned.

That last point is what’s most interesting to us here at The Juice Standard. Because it means Nevada’s answer to Question No. 2 could help change how many of us enhance our health with plants rather than meds made from them. And it could all start with the simple addition of a tasteless, odorless, colorless oil that when combined with foods you already love could add some pretty WHealthy™ bennies.

(Three guesses who’s gonna sell you this superfood upgrade, and the first two don’t count….)

WHealth™ Beyond Plain Weed

First…how do we know weed could even elicit such liquid gold? Research into our body’s endocannabinoid system started in earnest in the 1990s, when Raphael Mechoulam—a prof in the Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem—lasered in on chem relative to the bio-activity of natural products and medicinal agents. (Read more about him at the university’s website here.)

What did Mechoulam find? Not only do our miraculous bodies come pre-loaded with receptor sites designed specially to make good use of cannaboids, but we’re actually able to produce natural endocannabinoids similar to THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)…otherwise known as the The Most Well-Known Cannabinoid in Cannabinoidom, or the stuff in weed that can make us feel clear, calm, collected, soothed, and deeper into all of our perceptions.

That’s right, kids: Your bod just might’ve been made for marijuana.

So About Our New Oil

Now that you Bees are up-to-speed on weed, now’s the time to get gushy about our newest menu addition.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of more than a dozen chemical compounds that affect cannabinoid receptors in the body, brain and nervous system. As mentioned, those receptors are tied into our endocannabinoid system…which is involved in a bunch of body processes like appetite; mood; memory; perception; how we feel and regulate pain; and maybe most important for long-term health…how our bodies regulate inflammation and immunity.

Enter CBD oil (also known as hemp oil). The Juice Standard’s new whole-plant CBD oil from the company 2Rise Naturals contains a whole-plant, all-spectrum hemp extract rich in phyto cannabinoids, omega 3s, terpenes, and chlorophyll. The oil is then combined with medium chain triglyceride oil (MCT) derived from coconuts, wild-crafted turmeric oil, and some other wicked good stuff. When mixed into our smoothies, juices, nut milks, and hot espresso or cacao drinks, CBD oil may very well help unlock the benefits of our endocannabinoid system. (At least that’s why we’re bringing it to you. Hopefully, next week…and only at our neighborhood stores, not at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.)

Annnnnd…How Will You Feel?

What CBD oil won’t do? Get you high. High in CBD and low in THC, CBD oil is often dosed out to reverse people’s ick feelings from having THC hit them the wrong way.

What CBD oil could do? Help relieve pain. Or, help you sleep. Or, possibly alleviate side effects from fibromyalgia; pain from migraines. Anxiety. Arthritis. Insomnia. And other things a doc could tell you.

IN Closing….

At TJS, we’re hopeful you’ll put your curiosity and desire for total WHealth™ and glowing self to the test and give our CBD oil a try. We’re equally hopeful that folks won’t let arrogance and ignorance cast aspersions on the benefits of cannabis at large. Because honestly, Bees? Red-wine bennies excluded, when was the last time you heard a doc prescribe a Manhattan to cure cancer?

#MissionNutrition

#FactsBeforeFallacy

#WeedForWHealth™

#StokedUpToTokeUp

Five From The Hive: Your Questions Answered

August 31, 2016 By Jen Chase

From time to time we’ll be running a recurring feature pulled straight from the wholehearted comments and questions you Bees submit to info@juicestandard.com (and if you didn’t know you can reach out and touch us there, now you know).

Called “Five From The Hive,” we’ll take your thoughts and pose them to Those In The Juice Standard Know—founders, managers, directors and the like—so we can give you the skinny on the issues that are important to you.

To kick us off, we’re starting with the No. 1 thing you juice-drinking Bees ask about besides #BeggarsGonnaBeg for recipes:

Shipping.

Whether you live in nearby Cali or a faraway Carolina, the most consistent Q we field is how to get our goods to your ‘hood. Beelieve us: We’re thankful for the juicy love! But most of the time we end up having to bee big fat disappointers as we get truthy about our policies. And to set the record straight, The Juice Standard’s Co-Founder and CEO Jamie Stephenson answered some hard and fast ones about TJS’ plans for quiet world juice domination…even if only in Las Vegas.

1) What’s the hardest thing about shipping cold-pressed juice?

There is nothing “hard” about shipping juice. It’s just that juice as fresh and unadulterated as The Juice Standard presses means our juice is incredibly bioavailable and is a powerful source of phytonutrients…but it’s not very shelf stable. Why? Its raw; we make it fresh every single day; there’s no pasteurization; no exposure to ultraviolet lights (UV); no use of high-pressure pasteurization (HPP).

Since we cannot monitor the temperature of the juice during the shipping process, we feel very concerned about what a customer on the receiving end would get: In the shipping process, juice could be subjected to dramatic temperature swings which could lead to someone getting sick. And that flies in the face of our mission, which is to serve juice that enables one to get or stay well.

2) Why does it seem like some companies ship and some don’t?

Some companies pasteurize, UV, or HPP their juice. We don’t. [Ed. note: Want to really get you geek on? Read this white paper that summarizes 92 studies about the effects of UV and HPP on cold-pressed juice.)

3) Is it possible to ship non-HPP juice across the country? What does it take and would it be totes cost-prohibitive for folks in, say, North Carolina, to buy TJS from Las Vegas?

Last we checked it cost over $90 just to ship the juice overnight. We recommend Bees in other states that don’t have access to organic, fresh-pressed juice to learn to make their own. We suggest Norman Walker’s juice press, the Norwalk. It’s the best.

4) If the No. 1 question to the TJS website, blog or Facebook page is whether we ship, the second most-asked question is whether Bees can bring a TJS franchise to their part of the country. What say you, Boss?

There are currently no franchising opportunities at this time.

5) We know you can’t totally spill the beans, but inquiring minds wanna know: Does TJS have any plans for shipping?

No.

Facts About Fructose

April 6, 2016 By Jen Chase

If you’ve read this blog; met Jamie and Marcella and heard them wax poetic about health; or if you’ve visited any TJS location in person and have talked ingredients with our Bees beehind the counters, you know that no matter the health concern, we beelieve there’s a healing juice for everything that needs some healing. That’s why whenever we hear folks bestowing green juice with bountiful accolades (which it deserves) and poo-pooing juice with some fruit in it (which they shouldn’t), we worry. We worry, because fruit being considered “unhealthy” couldn’t and shouldn’t be further from the truth.

TJS juices do contain naturally derived fructose—also known as “fruit sugar”—and when consumed in mass quantities, like everything else in life, too much can certainly cause harm. But all TJS juices are in fact healthy (assuming you maintain a healthy lifestyle in the first place).

How?

1) According to this journal article by the National Institutes of Health (and others), we humans were born to detect sweetness…so to some extent, we probably shouldn’t defy nature, right? Our tongues have receptors all over the place that get great pleasure from a drippy bite of watermelon, the sweet-tart pop of ripe berries or the crunch of a crisp apple. And all of that makes indulging in fruit—like, for instance, a chewy date—just as satisfying and so much more healthful than opting for a processed candy bar.

2) Fructose or not, fresh, unprocessed fruit is filled with vitamins, minerals and nutrients. In moderation, fresh fruit is as healthful as it is satisfying.

3) For folks with metabolic issues or conditions that require living in a high-calorie world, TJS’s fruit-forward juices provide a perfect balance of healthy calories and nutrition by serving up two-to-three pounds of produce in every bottle…along with the absorbable vitamin and mineral bennies that come from lovin’ on your fruit.

4) All it takes is 15 minutes (or fewer) for the blood to start absorbing nutrients without having to break down and digest fibrous food to get to the goods. And that makes cold-pressed juice a huge help to people with diabetes, or anyone else with a condition that requires quickly raising sugar levels because the body absorbs juice so fast.

Cold-pressed Juice with Fruit In It: 1

Haters: 0

With all this fruit love, let’s dial it back to the green stuff for a sec so we can remember something important:

TJS’s lowest-sugar juices—ones that are mostly vegetable?—can equally be a part of someone’s healthy diet for the way they won’t send someone down an unhealthy path thanks to their low fructose content.

So, see? TJS juice proffers a win-win for everyone. Every TJS juice is beneficial. And if you’re an otherwise healthy person, the calories and healthy fat in a full bottle of nut milk is never going to be like the calories in a burger, either.

Calories are calories. But for sure, some choices are better than others.

Bentonite Clay: Bee Cosmopolitan’s Secret For Fighting Last Night’s Ails

March 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

What’s pink, sweet and healthy all over? Bee Cosmopolitan! Our newest juice in the TJS lineup has made its exciting debut on the menu at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and it features a very special substance: bentonite clay…a game-changing ingredient that could become your diet’s new antidote to life’s occasional ails and over-indulgence.

What’s bentonite clay?

Ever hear the phrase that something’s “old as dirt?” When it comes to bentonite clays—and there are a few different types but here we’ll talk about the kind you ingest—this ingredient of the earth and from the earth pretty much is earth. According to Camden Whole Health in Maine, some call it “living earth” because clay is basically weathered volcanic ash that formed an electromagnetic charge when the ash was born from thermal-dynamic heat and volcanic action.

So, yeah. Super-special earth. Magic earth, even. Because if taken the right way it really can help alleviate what ails you.

How does bentonite clay work?

When ingested, it is clay’s electromagnetic charge that is responsible for its ability to attract toxic materials in our system, hold them, and then flush ‘em through the body through our digestive tract. And by “toxic materials” we mean everything from germs, heavy metals and pesticides, to parasites and, yes: alcohol.

Why we’re touting Bee Cosmopolitan at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas?

It’s that whole attracting-alcohol-from-your-system-and-flushing-it-through-your-digestive-tract bit we think could help The Cosmopolitan’s Beeautiful Party People have a more pleasant tomorrow after any previous night’s indulgence. Whether you’ve over-done it at STK on a rich meal or knocked back a few too many at Marquee, bentonite clay can act as a magnet for the nasties in your system. And in the recipe that Marcella and Jamie developed, Bee Cosmopolitan’s lemonade-like flavor will make it a welcome nightcap for not only how it makes you feel but how smooth it goes down.

When should you drink it?

Bentonite clay is best taken at bed, so if you know you’re going out, plan a few days ahead and have a few Bee Cosmopolitans in your fridge. We also recommend drinking plenty of water, since clay can absorb many times its weight in liquid and the more you drink, the more you’ll flush. But bee warned: The clay is so good at attracting and flushing, it may effect the efficacy of certain drugs and medicines you take. (“Effect the efficacy?” We’re going with it.) What we mean is if you depend on exact doses of heart, blood pressure, mental health, or anti-convulsant meds, avoid bentonite clay or at the very least, chat up your trusted medical professional for some pre-sipping advice.

Evolution’s Announcement, HPP (Or Not) And You

April 21, 2015 By Jen Chase

HPP ain’t the way to bee (for The Juice Standard) but many juiceries use the process. We don’t judge…but we do have opinions. Read below and decide for yourself what’s best for your WHealth™.

True: All that cucumbery goodness would keep in an HPP bottle for up to six weeks, but where’s the honest-to-goodness freshness in that? We don’t judge companies that use HPP…but we won’t.

Did you see today’s news about how Evolution Fresh (makers of cold-pressed juices and smoothies) is adding a bevvy of fruit and veggie juices to its already gargantuan lineup? (It’s not long. You can read it here.) This spring, five new flavors of its cold-pressed juice—plus a current flavor already in its repertoire—will join Evolution’s 42 others…but they’ll be available in smaller bottles (11 ounces vs. the 15.2 ounce-bottles they make now).

As always, juicy news of any variety gives us reason for pause because there isn’t a company on the planet that doesn’t get a little antsy when someone does something different. But instead of useless hand wringing, Evolution’s announcement gives us a perfect podium for talking about something major we think sets The Juice Standard from the rest:

We’re committed to sourcing organic, and we don’t use the process called HPP.

What’s HPP, you wonder? “High pressure processing.” It’s a technique that lets juice producers extend the shelf life of their product by up to six weeks. Now, that’s rad for sales…but honestly, TJS beelieves that juice is pretty much dead by then. And since we’ve built our biz around the premise that juice should in fact be super fresh, vital, and rich with the enzymes Mother Effen Nature intended, we’d never dream of using HPP to bottle our juice. ‘Cause like our name says…we gots standards.

In our bumblebee-humblebee opinion, HPP is something to avoid. But to be fair—because around here we beelieve in karma—we get why companies use the process. There’s also plenty of lit on the Internets about why and how this process isn’t as damaging as people like us think. But we just happen to think that our way is the best way…both for our WHealth™, and yours. No disrespect to those who do it different. It’s simply not our choice.

The juicery playground is an expansive space. Lots of options out there. Our hope is simply to be a bastion of awesome information so you can make the best decisions possible. Meantime, see you as you stock up on TJS’ raw, cold-pressed, committed-to-organics, knock-your-socks-off-tasty, badass Singleton bottles at Ft. Apache, The Rose, or The Buzz over at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.