Rehydrating with Ryan Slater: Co-founder of The Juice Truck — Avneet Takhar Freelance Writer/ Digital Marketer

South- African born Slater is one half of the refreshing duo behind Canada's first mobile juicer joint, The Juice Truck. Having grown significantly since its launch in 2011, The Juice Truck now has two carts, located at Gastown's Water Street and the corner of Robson & Burrard. It's become a permanent fixture as a colourful retail space at West 5th & Manitoba. Voted as Vancouver's #1 Juice Bar by BC Living and successful fashion forays with Native Shoes and Party Skirts, five years in it's apparent that sippin' on juice is working out just fine for the 30-year-old entrepreneur.

How did the idea for The Juice Truck come about?

My business parter (Zach Berman) and I have been best friends since we were 10. My father was our soccer coach, and we went to the same high school. We worked every summer since we were 13 at his father's architectural glass studio.

He studied painting and I studied city planning at UVIC in Victoria. After graduating university, we decided to go backpacking around India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

We were completing a 3-week hike in the Annapurna mountain range, and we were in a small, mountain town called Manang when it started to snow and this turned into a blizzard. We weren't allowed to continue on until the Yaks made the trail for us. So, we spent a couple days in this town and soon learnt that all the locals were drinking this vibrant orange coloured juice, called sea buckthorn.

This really important berry grows at the high altitude of this town, and provided them with a huge source of nutrients compared to the limited vegetables and fruits that could survive the weather. This inspired us in how a community could be so reliant on a berry! For the rest of our trip we tried every juice cart we could in India, and much like coffee shops in Vancouver are community gathering spaces, these carts had the same community feel.

This further inspired us to want to do something juice related with a community feel. Thus, the street side juice truck was dreamt up!

Your business supports local. How important was this factor when setting up shop?
When we launched we both knew that supporting community farmers and the actual community in Vancouver was important. We both grew up in a really connected community in Richmond, and getting to know our neighbours in Gastown when we first launched was part of our first marketing campaign. We went store to store introducing ourselves and made it our mission to learn everyone's names! We even had a book where we would write down names of our customers and what some interesting facts were about them!

What makes The Juice Truck different to other juiceries around Vancouver, such as The People’s Juicery, Chasers and The Juicery Co.?
We are one of the only companies in North America that cold press our juice per order! This technique is generally done exclusively with bottled juices, but when we launched the business we actually didn't know that was the norm! So when we started in the truck, we used the Norwalk cold-pressed juicer which allowed customers to customize their cold-pressed juice.

How exactly does the juice cleanse work? Take us through the stages ranging from the 3, 5, and 7 day cleanses.

The juice cleanse was designed with a local nutritionist company called Feed Life. Customers were bringing Mason jars to our truck and asking if we could fill them up, and eventually it become too much to make on the truck, so we knew there was a big customer demand for home delivery and juice cleanses. After teaming up with the nutritionist company, we created a 3, 5 and 7 day program. Here is some info on each day:

3 day- for beginners. The stressed-out or those who suffer from chronic inflammation or digestive upset. The 3-day cleanse is a gentle flush of your system. It normalizes digestion and helps regulate hormones, remove impurities from your colon and supports your liver. You will feel refreshed and revitalized.

5 day- for repeat-cleansers who work out regularly and eat a healthy diet. The 5-day cleanse starts by removing impurities that have built up in your colon. By first supporting your colon and regulating your digestive system, we ensure that when your liver and other organs begin to cleanse, the way out is all clear! We designed this cleanse to renew your body while stimulating and supporting all your cleansing mechanisms.

7 day- for experienced cleansers who work out regularly, eat a colourful, plant-rich diet with very few refined foods. Designed to reset and rebalance your body, the 7-day cleanse is intensive, but your body will be cleansed from head to toe. Plus, it's a juice feast! Since this is such an intense cleanse, it is best to try this when you have some down time for rest and relaxation.

The juices sold are $9 a pop. A rather steep price point for a 500ml bottle of fresh juice...

Each juice we make contains 2/3lbs of fruits and vegetables! We strive to use as much organic and local produce as possible, and this does create a higher price for some products. It goes back to our desire to work within our community and help elevate all of our partners. $9 on a cocktail or $9 on a juice is the comparison we always get!

Highsnobiety recently wrote an article ‘How Hipster Food Trends Are Literally Ruining The World’. With a passing mention of how kale is ‘‘more hip now than it was 10 years ago’’, what’s your say on it? (The Green, The Remedy and The Kale Caesar all contain the popular vegetable).

I would argue that if ‘hipster’ foods are notoriously plant-based food options, then they are in fact saving our planet! The environmental impact of animal-based foods are having the largest environmental impact on our planet. This is even larger than the transportation industry.

I believe food trends do come and go. But plant-based diets have, and will continue to grow more and more as the education behind the health and environmental benefits of a vegan diet continues to hit the mainstream.

The Juice Truck X Native Shoes loafers successfully dropped back in 2015. Any other collaborations in the pipeline?

Our goal is to always think outside the box on collaborations. This year we did a watermelon skirt with Party Skirts! Next year we have a really big launch coming out in the summer, but for now it's a secret.

You’re in a buzzing city with a booming business. What’s the secret to the juicy life, Ryan?

Having a business partner to share this experience with has made it 10 times more fun than it would be going at it alone. I'm a strong believer in complimenting one's talents, and having a partner to balance out all your ideas only strengthens one's business!

Also, finding time to meditate and relax is vital. This doesn't mean the conventional form of meditation, but rather find the activity in your life that truly allows you to remove your thoughts of work and stray from the present as much as possible. For me, it's the movie theatre! That place is the secret to adding extra ‘juiciness’ to my life.