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Creating mouthwatering juice combinations involves a lot more than just the proper ratio of apple to kale. When the company is ríjuice, a Lancaster-based juice company committed to using the area’s most delicious and healthy produce, the ante is upped with a flavor profile exploding by way of local organic goodness.
Founder Cullen Farrell knew he had found the right name (pronounced “reejuice”) after perusing a Gaelic dictionary. “Naturally being Irish in heritage,” he says, “I saw ‘ri’ and said it aloud with ‘juice,’ and it rang perfectly!” The word, meaning “sun” or “king,” meshed perfectly with his vision of providing people with a product made from the nutritious fruits and vegetables of Lancaster County, the place he fondly refers to as the “King of Soils.”
Attending college in San Diego for philosophy and business would prove to be the seed that inspired ríjuice. When Farrell left behind the common meat and potatoes diet of Lancaster, San Diego and the University of San Diego introduced a much healthier diet. “I believe our cafeteria was ranked in the top three in the country for quality,” says Farrell. “I found myself ingesting green smoothies on a daily basis.” Friends who commented that he was going to open his “own green drink business” one day would, indeed, be correct.
Coming back to Lancaster two years later, Farrell began making drinks as a hobby, for fun, but found family and friends totally loving them. Without any local juice bars or even bottled choices at the time, Farrell realized he had found a niche and a business idea. He decided to travel to Los Angeles to visit as many juice bars as possible to really get a feel for the scene. “The healthy juice bar craze was really exploding out there when I went,” he says. “I was in heaven, and my excitement was growing.” He also noticed around 2013 that the trend was taking off in New York as well.
Knowing that neither location provided as many resources as his hometown, he realized, “If there is ever a place to start a juice company that uses locally farmed fruits and vegetables, Lancaster is the place!” Marrying his new juice business idea with an available local commodity, Farrell says his vision of a “farm to bottle” product was underway.
After Farrell and business partner Kyle Ober (who also attended University of San Diego) earned certificates from Cornell University in plant-based nutrition, they started making juice at their first location: the basement of Tellus360. “It began in a 400-square-foot room that had a three-basin sink and was licensed by the city to be a commercial kitchen,” recalls Farrell.
Outgrowing the space moved them to another location, this time within Prince Street Cafe’s commercial kitchen. “It’s through these early stages that we were able to connect with so many people that were just as passionate about Lancaster County and the community as we were,” recalls Farrell. “We were constantly surrounded by small business inspiration and positive, encouraging people.” Currently, they’re working within Lancaster Farm Fresh’s refrigerated facility in a 2,500-square-foot space.
In that space, they manage to create all of the flavors via a cold-pressed method. “Cold-pressed is the gentlest form of extracting the juices from plants,” explains Farrell. “It is a slow process, and temperatures are kept low throughout the pressing of the fruits and vegetables.” This is important for nutrition retention, so important to the company that uses only organic fruits and vegetables, while adding zero water, additives, or forms of preservatives.
Now, with ríjuice being a booming business pressing between 2,000 and 4,000 units/bottles a week, Lancastrians and beyond are fully benefitting from fresh juice, as are the local farmers who are currently contributing roughly 80 percent of the ingredients. “September [2016] we began a partnership with Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFFC) here in Lancaster,” says Farrell. LFFC is a non-profit that works with local farmers and also runs a successful community supported agriculture (CSA) program.
With all of the delicious, healthy ingredients, the only natural next step is coming up with tasty flavor combinations. Those combinations are “something we all take pride in,” says Farrell. “We’ve all developed pretty incredible palates within our small company since diving into the fresh food world.” Another core member of the company, Rafaed Pozzi, has brought further dimensions to flavor development, bringing in some of the more “exotic” flavors. Farrell says they usually spend one day a week working on developing new profiles or refining established ones.
With five core flavors like Good Mood (apple, cucumber, celery, kale, Swiss chard, collards, lime, and parsley) and Sunshine Daydream (apple, lemon, and ginger) as well as seasonal additions experimenting with fruits like paw paw, kumquat, watermelon, or kiwi berry, there’s always something for regulars and newbies to explore.
In addition to Farrell, Ober and Pozzi, ríjuice has Jordan Montosa as the kitchen manager, Sean Bruce working the Central Market stand, and its newest employee, Eric Stombaugh, running development and sales. As Farrell talks about each employee, it’s with admiration and appreciation, as each has helped grow the business from the ground up.
ríjuice
Lancaster Central Market, 23 N. Market St., Lancaster, PA
More retail locations and info at rijuice.com
