C&W / NorthMarq Retail Services

James Norton of Heavy Table reports that now Minnesota boasts its first fully-dedicated fresh-pressed juice bar. Truce (a cheeky portmanteau of true and juice) opened in late April in Uptown Minneapolis.

Co-owner Blaire Molitor describes the thought process behind the shop’s juice offerings: “From the start we knew what we liked and what we didn’t like – we wanted to be able to taste each individual ingredient in each juice – never having one overpowering flavor. We also didn’t want any of them to be overly sweet or bitter. We tasted every pressed juice we could get our hands on and made notes on what worked and what didn’t. We then tested recipes over and over again until we were happy with the flavor balance. We had friends and family taste them to get additional feedback. Everyone is looking for something different – some people hate ginger, some want extra – so we tried to appeal to as many varying tastes as possible.”

Truce uses a large-scale hydraulic press based on the Norwalk method. Translated to home juicers, this means less air and more juice in the bottle. Much like the open-kitchen concept adopted by many upscale restaurants, the press is fully visible to customers via a glass door. If you visit early enough you might catch pounds upon pounds of fruits and vegetables meeting their maker as they’re shredded and pressed (think tons of pounds of pressure) to extract as many vitamins, minerals, and juices as possible.

Flavors range from Beginner’s Greens (kale, spinach, apple, lemon) to Root (carrot, orange, ginger, beet) to AMP (apple, mint, pineapple). Smoothies and detox cleanses will be offered soon.