Bottled right in Ardmore, PA, Juice Dr. delivers right to your door fresh, raw, organic and cold-pressed juices to homes and businesses in the Philadelphia and Main Line area. Juice Dr. makes 100 percent organic drinks, each 11-ounce bottle one day’s serving of primarily Lancaster-sourced fruits and vegetables. They are sold on a subscription basis and delivered to homes and businesses, or pickup at the company’s headquarters/kitchen at 2901 Normandy Rd. in Haverford Township. A two-week trial costs $40 to $80, depending on the number of juice days, after which each client personalizes a program, use code PHILMYTUMMY for 20% off your first order!
I call us a health company, not a juice company. The juice is our tool. We want to make it as convenient as possible to change your diet. Drinking the fresh, raw juice every day gives people their nutrients. This can promote more energy, a better mood, can help with sleep and weight loss and clearer thinking. -FJ Leto
The drinks were first available in January 2015 at the region’s three HubBub Coffee shops, a start-up by another Episcopal Academy graduate, Drew Crockett, with direct-to-consumer service added two months later throughout Philadelphia and the Main Line. Juice Dr. also makes a custom juice for the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, Wayne, and Haverford.
After graduating from St. Joe’s with a degree in marketing, founder F.J. Leto, 30, headed out to California where he taught at the Outdoor Science School in Big Bear. During his time out West, Leto discovered organic juices that are extremely popular there with a proliferation of juice bars. He became an aficionado of raw juice himself. Leto, who got an online degree in plant-based nutrition from Cornell, said he wants to “help people meet their health goals.” Leto, who grew up in Villanova and Haverford, decided to come back to the area and start a raw juice business based in the Haverford Township section of Ardmore.
“I was working on the concept for over two years,” said Leto, who now lives in Newtown Square. Family and friends invested in Juice Dr. and Leto began his subscription juice service in 2015. He has about 150 customers, he said, but they can temporarily hold their subscriptions when they go away for vacation. Bottles of the juices are also available at HubBub’s three locations and Juice Dr. also partnered with White Dog Café, which used the juices for seasonal “mocktails.”
In the spotless, industrial kitchen is a giant juicer, a Good Nature X-1, that takes blended produce and presses it to extract the juice. The juice is never hot so it retains the natural probiotics that are said to aid with digestion, he said. The juices are mixed together in proprietary formulas and kept refrigerated until the products can be delivered, said Leto.
To that end, his Phase 1 juice is somewhat sweet and made with apples, kale, lemon and ginger, while the Phase 2 includes cucumber and spinach to the mix. The Phase 3 juices celery and dandelion, as well. Leto, who graduated from Episcopal Academy in 2004, believes drinking the fresh, cold-pressed juice promotes good health and lessens the chance of getting chronic degenerative diseases. The juice, which has a three-day shelf life, is delivered in small coolers with ice packs.
As people begin to drink the Phase 1 juice, “their taste buds change and your brain rewards you for drinking it,” he said. Clients then graduate to Phase 2 juice, which is 65 percent vegetables. Phase 2 is the most popular mixture that Juice Dr. sells, he said. Clients can then move on to Phase 3, which is “like a liquid salad with seven vegetables,” he said. “It’s very powerful for your health.” Juice from three pounds of produce goes into each bottle.
Juice Dr. is also developing some natural, vegan foods to go along with their line of juices, Leto said. These include a tasty chia and blueberry pudding, date ball cookies, cheese cake made with cashew cream and dates, and taco filling with tomatoes, walnuts and spices. The general manager is a trained chef who has been working on the recipes, he said.
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