8 Great Juice Bars in New Jersey

The juicing trend doesn't show any signs of slowing. Here's where to find healthy juices around the Garden State.

An assortment of juices. Photo courtesy of Juice Basin

When your body craves decent juice (i.e. not sugar masquerading as fruit-plus-vitamin C), the best juice bar is the one closest by. Or maybe it’s the juice bar where you can actually buy 16 ounces of something fresh and healthy for under $8. What we’ve gathered here is a short list of juice bars and cafes that have some of the more interesting programs, and self-defined styles, in the apparent throng of next wave “lifestyle” juicing that’s booming.

You’ll see a lot of new ingredients in juice bars, such as CBD, which we touch on here and here, maca and Manuka honey. There are also terms like “alkaline diet” and “adaptogenic,” which utilizes unique plants or herbs that some claims say support your adrenal system. We can’t speak to the veracity of any claims. Where we can, we define ingredients. But as always where food and drink get pseudo-medicinal, proceed with caution, research, and when in doubt, consult your doctor.

Here’s our list of 8 great juice bars in New Jersey, in alphabetical order.

Animo

Haddonfield

Animo Juice & Burrito Bar in Haddonfield offers a menu of healthy bites to eat amidst all the green juicy wellness. Their well-rounded, funky menu also includes a small section of frozen banana custard flavors and some unexpected, thoughtful ingredients like the Sunrise Kingdom, with lemon, sweet potato, turmeric, apple, and orange.

Funkiest Ingredient: Psyllium Husk in their “Pipe Cleaner” specialty juice, likely so-named because psyllium husk is a plant seed-derived fiber more commonly associated with its laxative properties.

210 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield; 856-427-9070

Arlee’s Raw Blends

Princeton

Arlee’s is like a lovely little cathedral of branded health in Princeton, with retail shelves and cold cases full of fresh-ground almond butter and raw cold pressed Arlee’s juices. Inspired by new mom Arlee and her homemade 21-day juice cleanse, the menu spans the cold pressed rainbow (beet, lemon, lime, kale and pineapple). Arlee clearly found her groove and isn’t stopping with liquids: you can also get things like cashew cheesecake, raw vegan cupcakes, housemade kefir, and lunch boxes with things like sushi and pizza (the healthy kind).

Funkiest Ingredient: Not quite an ingredient, but they did blend up some Vegan Egg Nog over the holidays, which makes us wish there were more occasions calling for nog.

246 Nassau Street, Princeton; 609-580-1899

Beets Juice Bar

Park Ridge

Beets is the kind of juice bar that looks prime to go prime time: sleek, thoughtfully curated menu, with a hip vibe. More importantly, the menu does a careful straddle of traditional, familiar juices, plus smoothies, bowls and some funkier health-forward options. Beyond the juices, which are geared to fix, e.g. Daily Detox, Inflammation Fix, the bowls are a big hit, though we’re more interested in where Beets goes performance-based with Protein Smoothies—the Cinn Station in particular looks good, with aforementioned maca, cinnamon protein, and raw almonds.

Funkiest Ingredient: the nutrient-dense hemp seeds in the Health Nut smoothie just might help your bones, brain and cells.

21 Hawthorne Avenue, Park Ridge; 201-746-6047

Green Point Juicery

Morristown

Organic, kosher, gluten-free, raw, non GMO, no HPP (which stands for High Pressure Processing). Suffice to say Green Point Juicery isn’t messing around with the purity of what goes into your 8- or 16-ouncer. Their Cold Pressed menu is the headliner here, and you can instantly tell by the breadth of the menu alone that they got more creative than other juice bars stop with the words “cold pressed.” More of a (fun) health stop with less funk than sleek function, but they also do good, life-rounding-out extras like vegan burgers, cleanse menus and a few sweet indulgences.

Funkiest Ingredient: activated charcoal, the hyper-trendy, terrifyingly (alluringly?) black stuff that potentially boosts your efforts to detox with its own detoxifying powers.

28 Speedwell Avenue, Morristown; 973-500-3044

The Juice Bar

Merchantville

The Juice Bar in Merchantville carries on a family tradition for owner Seth Amoah—he grew up with parents blending anything from Swiss chard to purple cabbage and garlic. You won’t find much of that on the menu at his juice bar, where things veer more palate-friendly (and wallet-friendly, 20 ounces for $5.50 is already a mood-booster). Part of the appeal of the Juice Bar is its commitment to community—opened in Merchantville specifically to bolster the town’s already strong local business vibe—and affordability, with a kids menu of snacks and smoothies as a healthy after school alternative to junk. Amoah’s background is in athletics, physical and nutritional coaching, so more than good vibes go into the targeted (health, detox, immune, etc.) juice recipes.

Funkiest Ingredient: Not an ingredient (they’re also fairly straightforward), but we’re very happy to see the Carrot Cake smoothie is on the regular menu.

20 South Center Street, Merchantville; 856-324-0436

Juice Basin

Asbury Park

If you want scientific expertise with your juice, this is the way to go. Not that there’s a “Science of Juicing,” so far as we know it, but the founders of Juice Basin have backgrounds in engineering and biology, meaning things like pH, temperature, and the HPP process are at the fore. Juice takes central stage, with a serious cleanse program (no surprise, they’re pretty scientific about it) and—the first we’ve seen—a “Bridal Cleanse,” which we’re hoping addresses psychological as much as any dress-fitting concerns of the Big Day (juices include the Fitting Day, the Maid of Honor and the Rehearsal Dinner). The original location is in Asbury Park, but you can also get Juice Basin cleanses, bridal and otherwise, in Jersey City and Montclair.

Funkiest Ingredient: e3Live, “nature’s loveliest molecule,” another cure-all found in their Tie the Knot juice (it supposedly “turns on the brain”).

805 4th Avenue, Asbury Park; 732-481-4110

Joyist

Montclair

Brooklyn transplants Greg and Kacy Erdelyi opened Joyist as part of their conversion to a serious, daily health regime as newbie parents. A self-described “Organic Functional Foods Café,” Joyist has a big menu (presumably to hit all major functional needs), from organic coffee selections to hot and warm bowls, juices, smoothies and tonics. In addition to bright, balanced recipes you’ll find some savory foods to the roster, e.g. their Breakfast Bowl with soft boiled egg and roasted maitake mushrooms.

Funkiest Ingredient: lucuma, a natural sweetener made with a Peruvian superfood fruit and moringa leaf, a leaf from the so-called “Miracle Tree.”

617 Valley Road, Montclair; 973-337-5955

Ocean Organics Juice Bar & Café

Toms River

Ocean Organics has been around since 2013, which means they were juicing some years before the recent wellness explosion. By now they have two more locations in Jackson and Seaside Park, and a big food menu, maybe the biggest and most restaurant-like of the list, that includes a range of Plant-based Burgers, gluten free waffles stacked high with nutritious toppings, and unexpected “health food” snacks like Coconut Bacon Loaded Tots. Don’t overlook the juices, though—yes, they’re very traditional (no psyllium husk here), but also adamantly not pasteurized and, let’s not forget this part, tasty.

Funkiest Ingredient: Jackfruit, the south Asian “miracle fruit” which is increasingly used as a protein substitute, often for pulled pork, or here on their “Sloppy Jack.”

570 Fischer Boulevard, Toms River; 732-597-0800

Read more Table Hopping articles.

By submitting comments you grant permission for all or part of those comments to appear in the print edition of New Jersey Monthly.

Required
Required not shown
Required not shown