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AUGUST 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
BRIGHT IDEAS
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INDUSTRY
juices represent a $1.6 billion mar-
ket—sizable enough to a ract coffee giant
Starbucks, whose recent acquisition of
Evolution Fresh represents the biggest
bet it’s made in years.
The move came about a er Starbucks
baristas across the U.S. began report-
ing a shift away from the double-caf,
double-whip, extra-caramel craze of yore.
Customers increasinglywantednutritional
info and healthier options, like yogurt and
the veggie box; Facebook groups cropped
up demanding Starbucks start offer-
ing almond milk. At the same time, the
company’s once-dazzling growth stalled.
Nine hundred stores closed in 2008, a er
a decade of declining shares and consumer
interest. Thewritingwas on thewall. “Our
customers wanted a be er lifestyle,” says
Chris Bruzzo, senior vice president for
Starbucks and Evolution Fresh.
So Starbucks executives began looking
into juice. CEOHoward Schultz was spot-
ted repeatedly staking out New York City
juice bars like Liquiteria and The Juice
Press in the hopes of poaching ideas,
maybe even employees. But fresh juicing
requires serious amounts of produce. It’s
messy and expensive, and the product
spoils quickly (since using preservatives
or full conventional pasteurizationwould
kill nutrients and thus defeat the point).
Pulling it off on a large scale seemed pro-
hibitively difficult.
That’s when Schultz found Jimmy
Rosenberg. The juice business vet—who
made a mint selling his share of Naked
Juice to Pepsi—had founded Evolution
Fresh, the first U.S. juicery to use high-
pressure processing (HPP), a method of
pasteurizing with pressure instead of
nutrient-destroying heat. HPP made pre-
mium juice mass-marketable for the first
time ever, says Bruzzo, le ing Evolution
Fresh sell juice that’s preservative-free but
still stays fresh for up to 40 days—weeks
longer than something you’d get out of
your at-home juicer, or at smaller juicer-
ies. Recon concluded, Schultz bought the
California-based company last November
for $30million, rebranded it with a cleaner
logo and opened the new brand’s first
juicery in an old Starbucks location in
Bellevue Square.
Evolution Fresh doesn’t have a lock on
HPP, whichhas been adoptedbyBlueprint
and other brands. The difference is that
Evolution Fresh has Starbucks, with guar-
anteed distribution in the chain’s nearly
17,000 storesworldwide, existingdealswith
thousands of supermarkets and natural-
food stores, and a reputation for good
customer service. Beyond adding the cute
new logo and fresh-faced juice tenders,
Evolution Freshhas done awaywithnoisy
juicing apparatus: All juice is pressed at the
company’s plant in San Bernardino, Calif.
The juice isn’t organic, which will inspire
controversy inhardline circles, but Bruzzo
says the brand has introduced a limited
line of organic juices, with more to follow.
Of course, Evolution Fresh isn’t for the
avant-garde. It’s for themainstream, those
at the beginning of their, um, juicing jour-
neys, who perhaps feel more comfortable
with what lies between Tropicana and
something that just moments ago was a
few leaves of kale and an orange—a piece
of territory currently dominated by the
700-store-strong Jamba Juice. “This is
an incredible opportunity for Evolution
Fresh to make pure, nutritious, natural
foods and drinks more accessible for
customers,” Bruzzo says. “And we’re only
just ge ing started.”
Andwhat of thecompetition, those li le
juiceries that have been carrying the flag
in relative obscurity for so long? Are they
worried about Starbucks bigfooting them
on their own turf? According to Hayden
Slater, who owns L.A. mini-chain Pressed
Juicery, it may crowd the market but it’s
good for the movement. “I’m excited,” he
says. “Imean, as a small-business owner I’d
be lying if I said Iwasn’t intimidatedby the
idea of Starbucks coming in. But I think
it’s only going to bringmore awareness to
the community.”
Slater has no problem with market-
ing juice to the masses—it’s something
he hopes to one day do himself. “At the
end of the day, this isn’t rocket science,”
he says. “It’s fruits and vegetables we’re
talking about.”
ALYSSA GIACOBBE
takes her green juice
with a vodka chaser.
A
recent study from
the Chinese
University of Hong
Kong reports that there’s
more to marital bliss
than sharing life goals and
dishwashing duties. Spouses who travel in
the same direction to work, regardless of
route taken or whether they actually travel
together, report being more satisfied
with each other than those who don’t.
What’s more, the scientists found
that even randomly paired strangers
who traveled in the same direction to
an experiment room reported greater
attraction to each other than those who
traveled in opposite directions.
As unlikely as the effect may sound, it
stems from the idea that people create
visual representations of goals, and
that those visual representations are
connected to related concepts in the
brain. Thus, just walking in the same
direction might make you remember the
goal of “moving in the same direction,”
resulting in a better marriage. Following
your significant other around the house
muttering about the dishes, however: still
a bad idea. —JACQUELINE DETWILER
Going My Way?
TO STAY HAPPILYMARRIED, TRYMOVING IN THE SAME DIRECTION
this month’s
AMAZING
FACT
!