Greens, explained

Green Juice

The easiest way to get more greens in. Leafy greens like kale and spinach, cold-pressed and balanced just enough to actually drink, from the pure no-fruit blend to the gentler, apple-rounded ones. Here's what's really in a green juice, what it naturally carries, and how to drink it, with the wellness hyperbole strained out.

Fresh leafy greens beside a glass of vivid green cold-pressed juice
A·C·Kvitamins leafy greens naturally carry
0added sugar or concentrate
Freshpressed, then frozen
What it is

Leafy greens you can actually drink

A green juice is mostly leafy greens, kale and spinach and the like, cold-pressed with lighter vegetables such as celery and cucumber. On their own, greens are bracing, so most blends round them off with a little apple or lemon to make them drinkable. How far they go is the difference between our blends: Pure Greens has no fruit at all, while the others soften the edge.

We cold-press whole fresh vegetables in small batches and flash-freeze within hours, never from concentrate, never from powder, never pasteurised. Green powders and shop-bought greens that have sat in a warm bottle are a different thing to fresh cold-pressed leaves. You defrost a bottle when you want it, rather than drinking something heat-treated to last.

The taste is fresh and grassy, more savoury than sweet, with whatever fruit's in the blend lifting it. It's the flavour of actual vegetables, which is rather the point.

What's inside

Why greens are worth the effort

Leafy greens are among the most nutrient-dense foods there are. We'll keep this factual: these are nutrients naturally found in the vegetables we press, described as what's in the bottle, not as promises.

Vitamin K

Kale and spinach naturally contain vitamin K, part of what gives dark leaves their deep green colour.

Vitamin C & folate

Greens naturally contain vitamin C and folate (one of the B vitamins), as part of the whole vegetable you're drinking.

Iron & magnesium

Spinach and other dark leaves naturally contain iron and magnesium, the minerals that give greens their earthy depth.

Naturally low in sugar

A veg-forward green juice is naturally low in sugar, and we add none. What sweetness there is comes from a little fruit in the blend, not a sugar bag.

Where a specific juice is genuinely high enough in one of these to make an authorised health claim, we'll say so on that product, with the exact wording, and not a word before. That's the honest line, and it's the legal one.

Why bother

The easy way to eat more veg

Most of us don't eat enough vegetables, and greens are the ones we skip most. A cold-pressed green juice is a straightforward way to add a good pile of them to your day, in a form you'll actually get through. It's a favourite with people who find salad a chore but still want their greens in.

We'd be the first to say it isn't a replacement for eating your vegetables, and it isn't a magic bullet, whatever the internet tells you about green juice. It's a genuinely easy, genuinely good addition, made from real fresh leaves rather than a scoop of powder.

Fresh leaves, cold-pressed, frozen fresh. No powder, no concentrate, no promises it can't keep. If a green drink is a beige powder in a tub, it isn't the same thing.

How to drink it

Making friends with the green one

Start with a balanced blend

If you're new to green juice, begin with one that's rounded off with a little fruit, like Balanced Greens, and work towards the pure stuff.

Build up to Core Greens

The one to graduate to is Core Greens, greens with a ginger zing and a little green pepper, and the most going into it of the whole range. Pure Greens is there too, no fruit and unsweetened, for anyone who wants zero sweetness.

Any time works

Morning, with lunch, after a workout, whenever suits. A green juice is an everyday drink, not a dose, so there's no clock to watch.

Defrost, shake, drink

We press to order and freeze fresh. Move a bottle to the fridge overnight, shake well, and drink within a couple of days. A squeeze of lemon brightens it.

Greens questions

The things people actually ask

What's actually in a green juice?

Leafy greens like kale and spinach, cold-pressed with lighter vegetables such as celery and cucumber, and usually a little apple or lemon to balance the taste. Our Pure Greens skips the fruit entirely; the others round it off. No water, no concentrate, no powder.

What does green juice taste like? Is it bitter?

Fresh and grassy, more savoury than sweet. Neat greens can be bracing, which is why most blends add a little fruit. Start with a balanced one and the taste grows on you fast; a lot of people end up preferring the pure version.

Is the apple just sugar?

No. There's a little fruit in the balanced blends to make them drinkable, but a veg-forward green juice is naturally low in sugar and we add none. Pure Greens has no fruit at all if you'd rather skip it.

Is a green juice as good as eating vegetables?

It isn't a replacement for eating your veg, and we won't pretend it is. Whole vegetables give you fibre that juicing leaves behind. What a green juice does is make it easy to get a good hit of fresh greens on days you wouldn't otherwise, which is no small thing.

Fresh green juice or a greens powder?

Different things entirely. We press whole fresh leaves and freeze them within hours; a powder is dried, milled and mixed with water. If you want the taste and the freshness of actual greens, it's the cold-pressed version.

Which green juice should I start with?

A balanced blend with a little fruit is the friendliest way in. Once you've got the taste, Pure Greens is the no-fruit one for the purists. There's no wrong order.

Are they pasteurised?

No. We flash-freeze within hours of pressing instead of heat-treating or high-pressure processing, so nothing's done to the juice between the press and your freezer.

Start here

Get your greens in

Whole leafy greens, cold-pressed and never from powder or concentrate. From the pure no-fruit blend to the gentle everyday ones, frozen fresh and delivered across the UK. Subscribe and save 10% with free delivery.

Keep reading

The greens guides

Everything we've written on green juice, from what's really in it to how it stacks up against eating your veg.

Green juice has an image problem it doesn't deserve. What's actually in it, how it's made, and where to start if the idea puts you off, from the sweet end to fully fruit-free.
The colour tells you nothing, the sugar tells you everything, and the sugar comes down to one thing: fruit. How to read any green juice label in ten seconds, and why we press one with no fruit at all.
"Greens" gets used as if it were one ingredient, but kale and cucumber have about as much in common as beef and chicken. What each green actually brings to a juice, vegetable by vegetable.
Green vegetables get name-checked for iron, magnesium and folate constantly, usually with none of the specifics. What the register actually recognises, what survives a juicer, and the bit about spinach the cartoon got wrong.
Juice and smoothies get treated as interchangeable, and the machines that make them show why that's wrong. A juicer separates, a blender combines, and fibre, texture and sugar all follow from that.
Most people do green juice in bursts. The daily version is duller and works better. How much is sensible, what actually changes in the first month (taste, mostly) and how to keep it going.
Celery juice is a single vegetable doing one thing. Green juice is a recipe. How they differ on taste, sugar and composition, and why plenty of people happily drink both.
Carrot and green juice deliver completely different nutrients and taste profiles. Carrot is naturally sweet; green is leafy and herbaceous. Here's how to choose, or why you might drink both.
When you drink green juice changes how it fits your day, not what it is. Morning, mealtime or evening, the honest guide to timing, and why the slot you'll actually keep beats the perfect one.