The brightly colored oranges glisten in their glass-and-steel cage. A flick of a button sets the fruit in motion. Soon freshly squeezed, pure orange juice pours from the spout into a tall glass. A waitress whisks the juice off to serve another satisfied customer.

From freshly squeezed juices to 100 percent juice blends, more and more Americans are quenching their thirst for healthful beverages with fresh juices. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 1977 and 1997, per-capita fruit-juice consumption increased 42 percent. And across the country, restaurateurs are rediscovering the benefits of serving 100 percent fruit-juice drinks to a growing number of customers.

"Fresh juices are popular because they taste fresher," says Sheila Cohn, nutrition coordinator for the National Restaurant Association. "Fresh juice has most of the vitamins and minerals from the fruit itself, which makes fresh juice good for you."

"We're catering to a lifestyle change that's happening today," says Kirk Perron, founder and chairman of Jamba Juice Company, a juice-bar franchiser headquartered in San Francisco. "There's been a lot of education about eating five fruits and vegetables a day and [our products] can help people meet that goal."

Give me a cup of juice

Fresh juices still rule the breakfast/a.m. snack time. "Morning is the time when people get a significant portion of their fresh-squeezed juice," says Chris Morrow, president of Juice Bar Solutions, a consulting firm based in Millbrae, California.

"We sell a great deal of juice throughout the day," says Estelle Roberts, co-owner of the Juice Stop in Corona del Mar, California. She sells orange, apple, wheat-grass, carrot, spinach, celery and zucchini juices in a variety of combinations. "We get a cross-section of the population, although the main bulk of our trade is young adults," says Roberts.

"People that typically have adopted a lifestyle that's pretty healthy tend to put fresh vegetables and fruit into their bodies throughout the day — although our fresh-juice sales skew closer to the morning," says Perron. In addition to its blend-to-order smoothies, breads, pretzels, soups and energy bars, Jamba Juice serves wheat-grass, orange, carrot, banana and other fresh fruit and vegetable combinations in its more than 300 locations nationwide.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Nantucket Nectars currently sells its Freshly Blended Nantucket Nectars — 100 percent, all natural juices that are flash-pasteurized — in Boston and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and in Atlanta, in addition to its bottled, 100 percent juices, such as Pressed Apple Juice and Premium Orange Juice. "Juice sales are higher from breakfast until lunch while lemonade and tea sales are higher during lunch and dinner," says Larry Belka, Nantucket Nectar's fresh-juice operation director.

At the 10 Finagle A Bagel units in the Boston area, fresh-juice sales "run all day long — there's no peak period," says Heather Robertson, director of marketing for the retail bagel bakery and cafe chain. Two years ago, in response to customer demand, Finagle A Bagel added Freshly Blended Nantucket Nectars to its own private-label fresh orange juice. "People really wanted fresh juice with their bagel and bagel sandwiches," says Robertson, "and not necessarily just orange juice. . . . We realized we were losing that opportunity for a sale by not offering any other fresh juices."

Juicy profits

It's not just the traditional breakfast/a.m.-snack operations that have put fresh juice front and center — many lunch and dinner establishments are adding the natural energy boost to their beverage selections. "In recent years, we have seen a little bit of movement of juices being drunk as an afternoon pick-me-up," says Jim Dwyer, senior vice president of North American commercial operations for Tropicana Products, Inc., in Bradenton, Florida.

Tropicana markets two brands of juice to the foodservice industry: Tropicana 100 Percent Pure Squeezed Orange Juice and Tropicana Pure Premium Juices, which are available in a variety of flavors. "While the majority of people drink fresh juices in the morning, people are beginning to see the nutritional value of drinking juice in the afternoons," he says.

Tropicana has begun a marketing push to gain more foodservice customers, says Dwyer. "We're seeing more interest in juices, sales are booming, and we're trying to work more and more with people in the restaurant industry to understand what they're looking for in a fresh juice."

Chick-fil-A, a quickservice chain with 925 units, has been a Tropicana Pure Premium customer for more than five years. "Over 90 percent of the orange juice we sell is sold between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.," says Steve Hester, director of purchasing for the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A. "While we offer Tropicana Pure Premium all day long, our customers still consider orange juice a breakfast item. Our growth percentage from orange juice continues to outpace our overall chain-growth percentage numbers."

Putting on the squeeze

As the fresh-juice category continues its upward climb, restaurant operators are exploring new ways to capture consumers' tastes by serving their own fresh-squeezed juices. Companies manufacturing commercial juice-extractor machines report an increase in interest from restaurants and foodservice establishments in owning or leasing a juicer. "Whenever you squeeze an orange, the taste deteriorates over time," says Stan Gutwein, general manager for SunSqueeze, Inc., a Chicago-based distributor of citrus-juice machines. "The sooner the juice is consumed after it's squeezed, the better."

SunSqueeze offers several sizes of juice machines that take whole citrus fruit — lemons, limes, tangerines, tangelos, oranges and small grapefruit — and automatically extract the juice while discarding the peel.

At the 2000 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago, juice-machine exhibitors reported an increase in interest among restaurant operators and consumers in freshly squeezed juices. "Fresh-juice sales are growing in juice bars and restaurants because fresh juice is healthful, refreshing and tastes great," said Jerry King, national accounts manager for FMC FoodTech, which has manufactured Fresh 'n Squeeze juicers since 1990. King says the Fresh 'n Squeeze machines — which squeeze limes, lemons and oranges — extract less oil and impurities from the seeds and skin and have minimal maintenance with easy cleaning and sanitizing.

The Automatic Juicer has also been squeezing fruits and vegetables into juices for 55 years. At the Show, Automatic Juicer demonstrated its versatility in juicing a wide variety of produce. "We have juicers for carrots, apples, pears, leafy green vegetables, sugar cane and citrus fruit," says Stewart Nelson, president of the New York City-based manufacturer. "We think the health craze will continue to grow and fresh juice is part of that trend."

When choosing a juice machine, a restaurant operator should determine how easy the machine is to operate, how easy it is to clean, the size of it, how fast it works," advises Getwein. As to what size of machine to lease or purchase, restaurateurs should decide how much space they can allot to the juicer and how much the juicer will need to produce.

Gutwein recommends squeezing the juice in front of the customers to help market the fresh citrus drinks.

Morrow agrees, adding that "fresh-squeezed juices only sell well if marketed well — it's generally an impulse purchase."

To facilitate sales, Finagle A Bagel places its juices in coolers positioned next to the cash register. "When people are ready to make a buying decision, the choice is right in front of them," says Robertson.

Jamba Juice prominently places its fresh juice on the menu board to garner purchases. "We sometimes do samplings at outdoor events or sponsor an athletic event and donate fresh-squeezed juices," says Perron. Jamba also lists the nutritional breakdown of its fresh juices — along with other products — in its stores for customers to read. "We let the juice speak for itself," says Perron.

Pulp futures

All these fresh-juice enthusiasts agree that the fresh-juice market will continue to increase along with the growing trend toward a healthful lifestyle. "Given that consumers are more concerned with healthy lifestyles, juice is well-positioned to be a part of that lifestyle," says Tropicana's Dwyer.

Morrow agrees. "As Americans become more and more educated about what they put into their bodies, they are turning toward juices to give them the energy and nutrition they need," he says. By catching the fresh-juice wave, restaurant operators of every type can cater to consumers who crave healthful beverages.

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