Green Juice
Low-sugar green juice: why we press one with no fruit at all
Compare two green juices on a shelf and the colour tells you almost nothing, the name tells you less. The number that separates them is sugar, and the sugar comes down to one thing: how much fruit went into the press. Here's how that works, how to read any green juice label in ten seconds and why we make one juice with no fruit at all.
Where the sugar in green juice comes from
Cold-pressed juice has no added sugar in any decent version of the product, the sugar it contains is whatever was in the ingredients. Green vegetables carry very little. Cucumber, celery, spinach and kale are mostly water and structure, which is why a juice pressed only from vegetables sits at the low end of the scale. Fruit is the opposite: apple, pineapple and mango are the sweetness in most commercial green drinks, and some of them are fruit juice wearing a green label.
Juicing also changes how that sugar behaves. Pressing removes the fibre, so whatever sugar is present arrives without the slowing effect whole fruit would have. That isn't a reason to fear juice, it's a reason to know how much fruit is in the bottle and to choose the level you actually want.
How to read a green juice label in ten seconds
Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so the first ingredient is most of the drink. That gives you a fast rule: if apple or any fruit is first or second on a green juice, you're holding a mostly-fruit drink. If the list opens with cucumber, celery or leafy greens and fruit appears near the end, the drink is what it claims to be.
The nutrition panel confirms it. Per-100ml sugar figures let you compare any two juices directly, whatever the bottle size. Vegetable-led green juices tend to sit low on that line, fruit-led ones can rival soft drinks. We covered what goes into each recipe in what green juice actually is, and every one of our labels reads the same way: vegetables first.
Why we make a green juice with no fruit at all
Most of our green range uses a modest amount of apple, because a little sweetness makes a daily habit much easier to keep. But we wanted one juice at the far end of the scale, for people who've moved past needing the apple, and that's Pure Greens: pressed entirely from green vegetables, no fruit, nothing added.
Without fruit, the vegetables carry the whole flavour. Pure Greens tastes cleanly savoury, closer to the garden than the fruit bowl, and it's the juice our green cleanse plans are built around, where sugar across a full day of juices matters most.
Is fruit-free harder to drink? At first, a little. If your reference point is shop-bought smoothies, Pure Greens is a change of register. Most people find the adjustment takes a few bottles, after which sweeter juices start to taste like dessert. Cold helps, straight from the fridge and well shaken it's at its best. If you're not there yet, there's no prize for skipping steps: start with an apple-containing recipe and move along the range at your own pace.
The low-sugar end of the range
From the lowest-sugar juice we make up to the sweeter, apple-led options:
Pure Greens250ml / 500mlVegetables only, no fruit. The lowest-sugar juice we make.from £26.95View →
Balanced Greens250ml / 500mlKale-led and greener, with just enough apple to keep it easy.from £26.95View →
Core Greens250ml / 500mlSpinach-led, one apple's worth of softness and a little ginger.from £26.95View →
Fresh Greens250ml / 500mlApple-forward and the easiest introduction to green juice.from £26.95View →
All four are cold-pressed from whole vegetables and frozen straight after pressing. Browse them in the green juice collection.
Frequently Asked
Is there added sugar in green juice?
Not in ours, and not in most cold-pressed juice. The sugar on the nutrition panel comes from the ingredients themselves, which is why the fruit content is the first thing to check. Some longer-life supermarket drinks do add sugar or sweeteners, so the ingredients list is always worth a look.
What's the lowest-sugar green juice?
A fruit-free one. With no fruit in the press, the only sugar present is the small amount naturally found in vegetables. In our range that's Pure Greens, which contains no fruit at all.
Why does removing the fibre matter?
Fibre slows how quickly the sugar in food is taken on board. Juicing separates the liquid from the fibre, so juice delivers its sugar faster than the equivalent whole fruit would. Vegetable-led juices carry little sugar to begin with, which is why they're the calmer choice for daily drinking.
Can I do a cleanse on low-sugar juices only?
Yes. Our green cleanse plans are built on the vegetable-led end of the range for exactly that reason: across a full day of juices the fruit content of each bottle adds up, so a low-sugar line-up keeps the day's total down.
The bottom line
The low-sugar rule for green juice is simple: less fruit, less sugar. Read the label, fruit near the end means a genuinely vegetable-led drink, and if you want the lowest-sugar option there is, that's Pure Greens, pressed from vegetables alone. New to green juice? Start sweeter and work down. The whole range is in the green juice collection, and the basics are in what is green juice?
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