Juice cleansing: What goes into the juice

SINGAPORE - Juice cleansing companies typically make their juices with cold-press juicers such as the Norwalk (from the United States) or the Hurom (from South Korea) because they say the process of cold-pressing retains more nutrients than regular juicing.

The domestic fruit juicer is usually a centrifugal juicer that separates juice from the pulp through the use of high-speed blades.

This creates friction and heat, which can destroy the nutrients and enzymes in fruits and vegetables, the juice cleansing companies say.

A cold-press juicer, on the other hand, crushes and wrings the fruits and vegetables into a dry pulp, with little or no heat produced.

The juices are quickly bottled and kept chilled, so that there is little exposure to oxygen and other oxidising elements.

Some juice companies such as Absolute Juice produce the juices daily and deliver them to their customers later that same day, rather than deliver two or three days' worth of juices at a go, to maximise freshness.

The juices, however, can usually last three days in the fridge.

In juice cleansing, customers are usually given six 500ml bottles of various juices - vegetable, fruit and nut-milk blends - for each day.

A typical vegetable blend incorporates greens such as kale, spinach, celery and cucumber, while a fruit blend usually includes pear, pineapple and beetroot.

Some concoctions include "exotic" ingredients such as medjool dates, Himalayan salt and maca (dubbed "Peruvian Ginseng"), which is said to increase one's strength and libido.

Mr Tan Choonboon, 27, founder of Joob, says he adds a bit of apple into his more bitter-tasting blends to sweeten the mix, while lemon is also used where necessary to "neutralise any zing".

Absolute Juice owner Adren Lim, 41, says he rolled out a new juice menu two weeks ago, after taking into account customers' feedback on the taste of his juices.

Green pepper is now no longer used in his juice blends.

He says: "Some people felt it made the juice taste slightly 'spicy'. We took it out because we want people to enjoy the juice."

Besides taste, Gorilla Press' co-founder Ong Weiquan, 32, says variety is also important.

He adds: "We sometimes throw seasonal ingredients such as blood orange and lychee into our juices, just so that customers don't get bored."

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