What is Fresh+Frozen?

A true raw juice is very delicate. Phytonutrients react with air immediately and begin to break down in a process called oxidation. You know how when you cut an apple, it quickly turns brown? You cut through the cell walls of the apple, exposing its juice to the air. Same process, only much faster because virtually all of the cell walls containing juice have been broken down - it’s like a million tiny slices. That’s why it’s very important to limit a juice’s exposure to air and bottle it quickly.

[An apple with a fresh-sliced section (left) and one that has begun to oxidize (right)]

Even so, a small amount of air remains in the bottle, and the juice will lose nutritional value over the course of a few days, culminating in spoilage after a week. This process can be slowed down by vacuum-sealing the bottle. Vacuum-sealing removes most of the air from the bottle, greatly reducing oxidation and extending shelf life, but only by a few days. The naturally occurring bacteria will still spoil the juice eventually.

The bacteria can be eliminated by processing the juice, either by pasteurization (heat) or HPP (pressure). This gives the juice a very long shelf life, but destroys virtually all of the nutrients in the process, leaving you with little more than dead plant water filled with dead bacteria. Yum! By the way, you need those living bacteria in your digestive system in order for it to work properly.

[A Plate Pasteurizer Machine]

The only method of preserving a juice safely that does not destroy its nutritional value is freezing.

Many of us grew up with the incorrect notion that frozen food is not fresh. This misconception comes from the observation that many frozen foods become “mushy” or otherwise unappetizing after being thawed. This occurs because ice crystals formed from the water inside the food rupture the cell walls, which are no longer intact after thawing. This negative effect can be eliminated with flash-freezing, which produces smaller ice crystals that disturb the cellular integrity of the food much less.

In terms of nutrient content, frozen foods are actually the second-freshest food you can eat, second only to picking the plant directly from your own garden. Unlike heat and pressure, freezing destroys almost no nutrients whatsoever. It also brings processes like oxidation and bacterial spoilage to a near-halt. That’s why frozen foods last for months even without any special preparation.

Freezing is the optimal method of preservation for juice for two reasons: First, preservation of nutrients is the most important consideration, since that’s the entire point of juicing. Second, in the act of making juice, all the cell walls of the plant are ruptured, so there’s nothing for freezing to “break”. It can’t change the texture except for further breaking down any tiny bits of pulp that might remain in the juice.
 
A newly defrosted juice is about as fresh as the hour it was frozen. It is much fresher than a raw juice that has been in your refrigerator for two days. I only recommend refrigeration under vacuum conditions, and even then the sooner you finish consuming the juice, the better.

For all shipped orders, we freeze the juice immediately after bottling them so that our customers get the greatest nutritional benefit possible. That way customers can place an order for days or even weeks worth of juice, and simply defrost a bottle in the refrigerator the night before. It’s the best of both worlds, combining optimal nutrition with convenience.

That is why I operate on a Fresh+Frozen model. It would be much easier and more profitable to simply process our juices like most other companies do, but that would violate my stated mission. If the goal was to make as much money as possible, I’d simply sell sugar water - it’s certainly popular enough and easy to stock. No, my goal is to get people healthy again. I want to see strong bodies and minds everywhere I go.