Cocktails Are Benefitting From Fresh-Pressed Juices

Cold-pressed and fresh-squeezed juices have been a hot trend in Denver over the past year, with the addition of juice bars like Aspen Juice in Cherry Creek and LoHi's the Juicing Tree. Though intended as a health-conscious option, fresh juices also make for a great addition to a cocktail and are popping up on several drink menus.

At Zeal in Boulder there's a heavy emphasis on healthy, clean eating, and that extends to the cocktail menu, playfully called "detox retox." Cold-pressed juices are used in drinks like the Zeal Mai Tai, which combines Crusoe silver rum, Crusoe spiced rum, and ginger liqueur with orange juice, pineapple juice, and ginger juice.

Several of the cocktails at eatery, bakery, and market Olive & Finch include fresh-squeezed juices. Order the My Russian Granny and you'll enjoy Wilderness vodka, fresh-squeezed granny smith apples, and lemon. Olive & Finch has its own juice bar that serves a variety of blended options, sans alcohol.

Old Major recently unveiled a new cocktail list for fall, and among the clever creations is the Anything But Sue that is made with Wild Turkey rye, allspice dram, carrot-ginger juice, ginger syrup, lemon, and orange Bitters.

Another spot with juices to round out its offerings is newly opened Mercantile Dining & Provision in Union Station. As part of the more casual market and coffee bar side there are fresh juices, which carry over to the dining room's cocktail menu. Channel green juice with the Quick Like a Bunny, a mix of Krogstad aquavit, leafy greens, celery, lemon, dill, and house tonic.

Aside from being an Asian-influenced eatery and ping-pong hall, Ace also operates a juice bar. Though the restaurant's cocktail board doesn't have any items that incorporate those juices, guests always have the option of adding spirits to combos like celery, pear, and kale, or watermelon, Thai basil, chia, and coconut water.

And though Atticus initially was set to be the first restaurant to serve Gypsy Juice Raw, after running into issues because of the third-party and unpasteurized aspects of the product, it is working on in-house pressed juice recipes to be added in the future.

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