An upstart headed by two businessmen is making its mark in Calgary’s juice market by selling a product consisting of one lone ingredient.
The Fresh Squeeze provides freshly squeezed orange juice without pasteurization, added flavour packs or additional sugars.
President Troy Kelly and V.P. Andrew Green have made a rental agreement with a bustling industrial kitchen. Once the kitchen closes for the night, The Fresh Squeeze starts squeezing.
Utilizing an industrial juicer, the Fresh Squeeze operation can squeeze 14 kilograms of oranges in three minutes. In an average night, the company will bottle 250 litres of juice, the result of 5,000 squeezed oranges.
Each one litre bottle consists of the juice of 20 organic oranges and no additional ingredients.
The Fresh Squeeze’s commitment to natural juice isn’t the only thing that sets the company apart from the competition.
Within hours of being squeezed, the juice is delivered to the doors of Calgarians, a modern version of the neighbourhood milkman.
“Those oranges are fresh. They're usually brought in a day before they're juiced,” explains Andrew Green. “When they are juiced, they're to your glass within three to four hours.”
“It doesn't get any fresher than that.”
Large orange juice companies squeeze and pasteurize weeks or months in advance to ensure distribution throughout the year.
“Depending on the season, you could be looking at drinking juice that was squeezed about 10 months ago,” said Troy Kelly.
The Fresh Squeeze staff squeezes oranges on demand, and the demand continues to grow. The Fresh Squeeze orange juice is currently available in eight Calgary area markets and one hotel has signed up for door-to-door delivery.
Troy and Andrew hope to expand their business across Canada, which would require freshly squeezing oranges in every market they enter as unpasteurized juice only has a five day shelf life.
With files from CTV's Tara Nelson
