We love a good juice here at WHL, and our Q&A with Yes! Juice founder Zerya Shakely has satisfied our craving for the day. Yes! Juice is the new pop-up bar that’s opened in East London and it’s set to change the game. How? By making healthy food fun and showing how juicing is a great way to refuel and maintain a virtuous lifestyle. Zerya shares her inspiration for her delicious recipes and her vision of an innovative juice bar in the capital.
‘We have outrageous amounts of fun but we also look after ourselves, and this is what inspired us’
Q. What’s the concept behind Yes! Juice?
A. Yes! Juice offers organic high-quality fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies and raw vegan desserts to a wide audience. Our philosophy is simple: being healthy is fun! We are a fun, creative team who love having outrageous amounts of fun but also look after ourselves, and this is what has inspired us to create Yes! Juice. We won’t stop having fun but we want to make sure we fuel our bodies with nutrients to keep us going.
Q. What makes your juice bar different from the others?
A. We use a couple of ingredients no other juice bars use. We are really proud of our drink The Swedish Goddess, which contains aronia berries in it, which are extremely high in antioxidants and packed with nutrients. We are the only juice bar using these English aronia berries in the world.
We have also added birch water to this drink – pure birch tree sap. Birch water has many nutritional benefits as it contains antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and amino-acids. It is also detoxifying, thanks to its diuretic properties, which help flush out harmful toxins, uric acid and excess water from the body, in turn improving skin elasticity. The Swedish Goddess is a unique, delicious and incredibly healthy drink!
Q. How did you come up with your recipes?
A. I have been juicing for years and am always reading different recipes and trying my own versions. I like juicing unusual fruit and vegetables. One of my drinks that has parsnip in it tastes like white chocolate. I wanted fun names for the juices and came up with them myself.
Q. What’s your favourite?
A. I love them all – the ones I am selling now are my 10 favourites.
Q. What are your goals for your juice bar?
A. I want to be successful and open more juice bars across England, spreading the healthy-is-fun message.
Q. What are the benefits of juicing and why should more people get into it?
A. A single fresh juice can keep you full for hours with consistent energy levels. Drinking raw juice is the easiest way for the body to assimilate essential enzymes and micronutrients; these vital qualities of fruits and vegetables are lost in conventional food processing, cooking and heating.
Yes! Juice
You can try Yes! Juice’s amazing juices at the pop-up shop at 63 Hackney Road, Shoreditch, E2 7NX, London.
Want to learn more about Nutrition? Check out our Guide to Nutrition or Learn more about Juice Cleansing
