We visited Fű Juice Bar, located next to Mammut mall on the city’s Buda side, with a battle-worn, tired physique due to stress, smog, and the treacherous weather. Customers visit this place like a pharmacy, as the juices, smoothies, and other drinks are boosted with superfoods to provide benefits as “organic medicine”, and indeed they managed to brighten our mood. Raw vital energy and plenty of vitamins – in just a few sips!
Jennifer Franciska Gráf has a great deal of experience in detox treatments and healing juices – after all, she’s the former manager of the defunct TüTü Juice Bar on Pozsonyi Road.
She now manages Fű Juice Bar, which opened in December, where we can try a multi-day “detox cure”:
after receiving a 1.8-liter pack full of liquid vitamins and minerals, we can start the cure right away.
Those who want to start slow can drink a healthy shot, too. We don’t necessarily drink these for their long-lasting delicious flavor, but for concentrated nutrients: the thick juices served in shot glasses are as strong as a shot of pálinka. As an aperitif, we tried the menu of green wheat juice, ginger and pomegranate, and turmeric, ginger, lemon, and honey shots (390-450 HUF), among which we highly recommend the fantastic green wheat, grown in a small box on the countertop. Although as a juice it might have tasted like lawn grass initially, the aftertaste concluded the experience with a pleasant, fresh flavor. The alkalizing, cleansing green wheatgrass, which also speeds up the metabolism, comes from a Hungarian producer in Jászfényszaru. Customers can also buy their own seeds, grow the wheatgrass at home, and bring it back to have cold-pressed.
All cold-pressed juices are made of 100% fruits and vegetables, without any additional water, sugar, or additives. As opposed to other methods such as the centrifugal or single auger, cold-pressing preserves vitamins, minerals, and enzymes more effectively, resulting in a very clean, light juice. The bar always has a daily special among their juices (3 dl: 750 HUF; 5 dl: 1,050 HUF); at the time of our visit, this was a combo of carrot, apple, orange, and ginger, but following Franciska’s suggestion, we tried a vegetable juice that contains less fructose than fruity versions. The Green Tonic – made from celery, cucumber, lemon, and apple – is ideal for curing a hangover, and we really liked its spicy aftertaste of parsley.
Those who crave a more filling experience can easily replace breakfast or lunch with a smoothie; in this case, the base juice is mixed with some kind of fibrous fruit or vegetable, avocado, spinach, and berries. For example, the smooth Green Doc is made from apple, spinach, avocado, lemon, and ginger, while the Sleeping Beauty is made from apple, raspberry, parsley, lemon, and ginger (3 dl: 850 HUF; 5 dl: 1,150 HUF).
However, the biggest hit in the juice bar are the “superheroes” – the drinks enriched with superfoods like spirulina, goji berry, chia seed, and maca root. The sweet taste of Iron Man, combining pineapple, raspberry, rosemary, and goji berry, made us forget that we’re drinking a super-healthy and organic juice, while the Hulk, made from spinach, mango, kiwi, and spirulina, tastes more of vegetables (3 dl: 890 HUF; 5 dl: 1,350 HUF). The superfoods can be purchased separately, as well.
Almost all of the drinks, made fresh every morning, can be taken away in a nice little bottle and stored in the fridge for 3-4 days. Fű Juice Bar offers delivery to events, offices, shops, and cafés, and in addition to the healthy juices, they also sell homemade vegan cookies, cereal bars, and coffee. The store was previously occupied by the Cuppcake Cake Shop, so the change is radical. The walls are decorated with juice-related puns, and some juice-related books are also placed on the tables in case we want to know more about the science behind the healthy beverages.
