When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or a lemon-infused smoothie.
Funky Fresh Juice Co., a new venture from four local women, welcomed light crowds to its blue-and-yellow truck just outside of the Clark County Public Service Center on Wednesday.
It was only the company’s fourth official day of operation and already one customer, Genni Goff, was buying for a second time.
“It’s close by, so I definitely had to check it out. And it’s healthy, can’t go wrong with that,” said Goff, a manager for telemarketing firm Elite Fundraising.
The truck offers seven juices and four smoothies, in 12- or 16-ounce sizes. Each has a tongue-in-cheek name such as Bad Mama Jama or Stayin’ Alive, and are made from a potpourri of ingredients: ginger, celery, carrots and a lot more. Shots of wheatgrass or a mix of ginger, lemon and honey are available.
The aim is to offer such drinks for devotees to a juice diet, but also have more entry-level drinks for everyone else. Prices start at $7.
“There are so many health benefits to juicing,” co-owner Shawna Stewart said. “It helps your skin, your sleep, your digestive system, it helps detox your body. A lot of people know the benefits, and with the truck we wanted to make it accessible to everyone.”
Stewart and the other owners, Morgan Hutchinson, Mira Alexander and Rebekah Trigg, are usually on hand to try to provide good vibes, too.
“It’s just us four women burning it,” Stewart said.
Funky Fresh got started in 2015 when the four women were getting to know one another. Stewart and Hutchinson, who are sisters, met Alexander and Trigg and quickly bonded over a love of fresh and healthy juice.
But Stewart said they thought options for the drinks were sparse. Trigg, who is a health coach, started concocting different drinks, which they would test out on friends and family.
“We all talked about juicing, how much we love it, and one thing led to another and we opened up a truck,” Stewart said.
Like many juice and smoothie companies, the drinks are billed not just as tasty, but full of “natural energy,” more healthful than caffeine. The industry as a whole has enjoyed a trendy status, but has also felt a backlash as celebrities have turned it into chic, expensive products.
For its part, Funky Fresh said it was trying to bring the drinks to Clark County. Stewart said that was the crux of their decision to get a truck instead of a space to lease.
“We want to be able to go to our customers, go outside of a gym, outside of Whole Foods, or down at the park,” she said. “We want to be really accessible to our customers so we went that route with a mobile food truck.”
Customers were enthusiastic for Funky Fresh Juice on Wednesday. Chelly Allinger, who works in the collections department for Clark County, said she felt the area could use more juice and smoothie sellers.
“I think we need more of it,” she said.
