Earnest are Honest about Juicing

Thursday, 23 April 2015, 4:24 pm
Article: Francis Cook

Earnest are Honest about Juicing, Interview with Co-Owner Morgan West

Article and images by Francis Cook

A new juice bar and café quietly opened its doors on the 18th of March. Housed in the small, industrial, former Garrett St building loading bay, Earnest has a pared back, Spartan look. Splashes of colour come from the plants and fruit littered around the shop while, on a good day, sun-light beams through the wide open doors. I sat down with co-owner Morgan to find out what makes their juice different and his plans for the business.

“Earnest is a well-being company,” he told me. They have set themselves apart from other juice retailers by using a cold press method. “Other juice bars use centrifugal machines which get hot and destroy the nutrients in the fruit and vegetables. Cold pressing squeezes juice out without getting hot, never losing nutrients at any point.”

Supplied by Cuba Fruit, just around the corner, Earnest focuses on freshness. They don’t use preservatives and instead of an expiration date, the label simply states “Drink ASAP.” Eventually they would like to be sourcing their produce directly. Everything they can get from New Zealand, they do.

These are not simple juices. The yellow juice, for instance, contains pineapple, lemon, coconut water and fresh turmeric. Morgan’s background has equipped him for the elaborate creations on offer. One of his first jobs was at Moore Wilson’s working with fresh produce – later he worked in sales at Peoples Coffee where he learnt how to identify flavour profiles to minute detail. “The hardest thing is colour,” he says, “add a bit of mint to an otherwise yellow juice, the whole thing goes brown.”

We shared a bottle of his personal favourite green juice; granny smith apple, silverbeet (kale’s too cool), cucumber, lemon and mint. If juiced silverbeet doesn’t sound like your thing, don’t worry, it’s offset by the crisp cucumber, tart granny smith apple and the lemon – mint combo gives it a refreshing, zingy finish.

“It’s a balance of health and taste,” Morgan says. They don’t like to use words like “detox” or “cleanse” when talking about their juice. “It’s not a meal replacement, it’s supplementary, delicious drink that’s good for you.” A good match with one of the fresh made salads on offer.

The next goal for Morgan and his partners Jarred Bishop, Ben Lenart and Adan Tejirena, is to provide juice and salads to business around wellington. Ideally, they would like a webshop where businesses and individuals around the CBD can put in orders for delivery the next morning.

Disclaimer: The author is a friend of co-owner Morgan West

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Francis Cook

Reporter

Francis studied History, gaining a first class honours in 2014. He is interested in politics, music and popular culture. His thesis looked at nuclear themes in Japanese film history.

Contact Francis Cook

• Twitter - @FranPaulKennedy