smoothies

With an abundance of seasonal fruit and vegetables available year-round, it’s no wonder Los Angeles is a destination for cold-pressed juices and produce-packed smoothies.

In 2007, Marjan Sarshar opened the first location of Kreation in Santa Monica, offering hand-pressed juices alongside healthy grab-and-go meals — the chain has since expanded with more than 25 stores across Southern California. Hayden Slater, Carly de Castro and Hedi Gores followed suit with the opening of Pressed Juicery in West L.A. in 2010. Now the brand has almost 100 locations across the U.S.

Left to right: Slim Shady, Green N Nutty, Glow and Vida at Roots of Life in Huntington Park.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The benefits of juicing are debated — some argue that fruit contains high natural sugar content, while others encourage juicing as an easy stepping stone to embracing a healthier lifestyle.

When Salud Juice founder Angela Yeen’s father suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2012, juicing was a gateway that helped shift his relationship with food.

“I was trying to figure out preventative measures for this to never happen again, and I’m like, OK, how am I going to convince my dad, this Mexican machismo man, that he needs to eat better when his friends make fun of him if he eats a salad?” Yeen said.

Yeen bought a juicer for $5 at a garage sale and began researching and experimenting with recipes, at first masking the flavor of vegetables that her father would normally shy away from with fruit he already loved. They’d drink the juice together, raising their glasses to cheers, “Salud!”

Word quickly spread of Yeen’s homemade juices, and soon she was delivering them to friends and coworkers out of her VW bus. After a year, she outgrew her home and moved into a commercial kitchen. In 2015, she opened the first location of Salud Juice on 4th Street and Cherry Avenue in her hometown of Long Beach.

Last year, Yeen opened the third location of Salud Juice in Bixby Knolls. A decade later, she says she still makes an effort to cater to blue-collar men like her father and others who might be resistant to dramatic lifestyle changes.

“You walk in, and it’s like, ‘What is cold pressed? What is turmeric? What is ashwagandha?’” said Yeen. “A lot of our onboarding with our staff is reminding them how intimidating it is to walk into [a juice bar] for the first time and putting themselves in their shoes.”

Today, L.A.’s juice and smoothie scene is more expansive than ever, encompassing mom-and-pop shops, neighborhood juguerías and sleek chains slinging protein powders and supplements alongside blended concoctions. Often treated as a meal replacement, a juice or smoothie can cost about the same as a fast-casual lunch, between $10 and $25. Here are 16 our favorite green juices and smoothies that actually taste good, from a food truck in Koreatown to a casual fruit stall in Inglewood. — Danielle Dorsey