Juicing from New York to Paris

Business travel has been a bad influence on my diet and exercise. After a year and half of being on the road frequently, I’ve been forced to look into some options for dietary changes when traveling. On a recent business trip to New York and Paris I’ve started a little experiment with juicing. Cold press juicing has become more popular and I’ve noticed a variety of juice stores pop up in major cities. The “Fat, Sick, and nearly Dead” documentary also made an impression. Juicing seemed like a good way to incorporate more vegetables and fruit into my diet, even if I might not do it full-time right away.

Juicing in New York

Dean & Deluca

Dean & Deluca at Broadway and Spring st is packed with delicious treats. When you are swapping solid food for liquids, they also pack a few nice fresh pressed juices in the fridge. I trust that they are reasonably fresh, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the same juices there at the end of the day would wait for me the next morning. I assume so, and I assume that is OK. Nevertheless, I still prefer it to be solid shortly before I drink it, whenever possible. Saying “when in a pinch” doesn’t seem to do the juice enough justice, but when the ultra fresh juice is not an option the Dean & Deluca juices tick the boxes just fine as well. As far as selection goes it is a bit less exciting than JuiceWell, but reasonable.

VitaminChick [UPDATE: sadly, I just noticed VitaminChick is permanently closed. Updated March 3rd 2017]

The office I call home when I am in New York is in Soho, and conveniently located at 196 Spring street is VitaminChick. A small juice bar where you can buy bottled juices and smoothies, as well as freshly made-while-you-wait blends. The menu is reasonably sized, and I went over lunch to get a ‘healthy green’ smoothie from their menu. It tasted great, and it was whipped up faster than a fast food meal would be. As a smoothie, it also felt fairly filling and I was fine until about 6pm when it was time for a business dinner anyways. Having consumed only fresh juice and a smoothie for breakfast and lunch, the rice in my sushi dinner didn’t feel as ‘guilty’ as it might have otherwise.

The only suggestion for improvement at VitamineChick would be the option to create your own smoothie from a set list of ingredients. I felt a bit boxed in by the options available and some creative freedom would have been great, given the chance. To be fair, I did not ask if that was an option but if it was it wasn’t offered clearly.

JuiceWell [UPDATE: March 3rd 2017, this is also permanently closed. so sad. What is going on with New York and Juicing?]

I bought a few juices and some coconut water from JuiceWell. Their juices are made fresh daily, but not on site. They are sold bottled and the selection is as good as VitaminChick. I admit that I like seeing my smoothie or juice made fresh as I wait, but JuiceWell juices tasted quite fresh. I loved the infused coconut water, albeit a bit too expensive for regular consumption. I indulged because I figured it was a healthy treat to encourage me to keep juicing on my trip. JuiceWell’s opening hours are very convenient, opening as early as 8am. Their location is not obvious from the street, but you can find them in the lobby of 233 Spring St @ 6th Avenue.

Juicing in Paris

Paris was my next stop on my trip, followed by a quick one-day meeting in Montpellier. This meant I would be on a train for at least 4.5 hours, just getting off the train for a meeting. Chances of finding a real meal aside from what the local train stations offered were looking slim. Being quite happy with how I felt with juicing in New York I bravely typed in juice bar and all variations thereof (including in French) in Google Maps to search for options near my hotel. Juicing has not caught on yet in Paris as much as it has in New York, and it proved difficult to find options. There are definitely a few available, but any of these options would be an hour commute from my hotel. Eventually, I found Nubio, who are able to prepare and deliver your juices with just a couple of days notice. After I did the math, getting them delivered to my hotel really was the best way to go. The ladies at Nubio were also tremendously responsive and friendly when I confirmed by email first that delivering to my hotel would be no problem.

Nubio

My two-day juice cleanse arrived in meal-sized bottles packaged in fancy boxes. It made being healthy feel decadent. It was nice that a green juice felt as chique as a croissant in a Parisian cafe. Except that it was much healthier of course.

The best part of juicing while I was travelling in France was exactly the same reason I thought it was going to be difficult: I was incredibly busy. Getting a cooked meal was an option once a day, at best, but I was completely fine thanks to having my juice available throughout the day. It is liberating when you don’t have to think about what or where to eat, and whether it is going to be somewhat healthy.

Juicing while traveling on business has been a great way to balance out some of the ‘road food’ that finds its way into the diet. In New York I still ate one meal a day with colleagues. If anything, on the New York portion of the trip I managed to consume more vegetables than I would normally. While at the same time enjoying some time to socialize over a meal in the evening. In Paris and Montpellier life was so hectic, with so many meetings compressed in very little time, that Nubio’s juices were a true life saver.

If life is all about balance, then juicing while traveling keeps my diet more on track. A nice side effect was seeing a positive effect on the scales once I returned home.


Christine Buske is a former academic who left science at the bench, and now considers herself a woman in tech. She is a frequently invited speaker, and enjoys talking about career transformation (particularly leaving academia for the business world), tech, issues around women in tech, product management, agile, and outreach. She is a proud Canadian resident, and qualifies as a "serial expat".

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  1. Johnnie

    25 September

    amazing! haha, travel AND juicing? I am getting inspired here.

  2. Margo

    9 February

    so.. I never thought about juicing as a full meal replacement but tried it recently in a pinch, reminded by your post. It’s pretty good actually. Hoping to incorporate more juices into my life, gets me the much needed greens. I just wish they could taste like chocolate sometimes.

    • Christine Buske

      9 February

      Not everything can taste like chocolate, but there is no harm in a small dark square as desert? 🙂

  3. Colleen

    31 May

    Never thought about juicing while traveling before. That’s actually quite clever. I am always on the run when I travel on business and this is not the worst idea, to combine being busy anyways with a juice cleanse.

    • Definitely saves time, but less ideal if you have scheduled business dinners. It doesn’t prevent you from grabbing one on the go in between meals though.

  4. Kelly

    31 July

    I LOOOOVED JuiceWell, tried it based on your recommendation!

  5. pblondon07

    26 November

    I’m interested in doing a juice-reboot as well. Getting a juicer just for that though is a bit of an investment. Any advice or feedback is appreciated! If you are this dedicated to juice while on the road, I imagine you are juicing at home as well? I want to make an informed choice and amazon reviews can’t always be trusted these days. I’d rather get your feedback on what juicer you can recommend.

    • Christine Buske

      27 November

      Thanks for the question! I am going to do a bit of research and put an article on this topic on the schedule for early 2016! Nothing like a new years resolution, right?

  6. Claire Dixon

    17 December

    Have you ever made some of your own juice and taken it to travel? Bit of a restriction there on trip length as well as how to carry it (being a liquid). But I like it for road trips. I’m trying to figure out what juicer to get though, because realistically I have not been really “juicing”, but more “smoothie-ing”. I just have a blender but need to get a juicer. Any tips of what make/model you like?

    • Rose Richardson

      18 December

      I’ve been using a Phillips juicer, but I am not in love with it. It’s not powerful enough for hard veggies, better just for fruit but that defeats the idea of juicing for health or weightloss a bit if you can’t include your veg.

      • Christine Buske

        18 December

        Yeah that’s too bad, Rose. From what I understand the number of watts the appliance has is quite important. As are some other features. I am going to look into this and put together an article in the near future!

    • Christine Buske

      18 December

      Not quite yet, Claire. I’d like to, but I imagine you’d freeze it first and stick it in your suitcase. Should be fine for a few hours out of the fridge but in the hold of the plane, or using a cooler bag to keep it fresh. I definitely take smoothies to work though as a lunch alternative.

  7. Jenn P.

    3 January

    I live in the UK but visited Paris for the weekend, Nubio was a great find thanks to you!

  8. davidlovinglondon

    19 February

    I have to lose a couple of stone, fast! juicing seems to be the way forward because nothing else is really working. I’d also love to hear what juicer you are using at home. Veg isn’t cheap, so getting the most out of it is critical. Feels so wasteful otherwise.

    • Christine Buske

      19 February

      Not using one yet, David. I have a great blender, but it is not the same. I’ll be doing some research soon, and I have an series of articles planned out to be published within the next month!

  9. Carmen

    21 February

    I’ve been toying with the idea of a juice fast for some time now. haven’t had the courage yet, but getting a juicer should give me that extra push to do it (otherwise why did I buy it right!). Since you’re going to be writing about juicers I am going to wait for your recommendation before jumping in. gives me some time to mentally prepare as well then 🙂 hihihi

  10. Carmen

    21 February

    Also, once you do get your juice-on (I couldn’t help it), share some recipes! 🙂 🙂

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