“I’m just a guy who thinks the world should have great juice,” says Matt Cahir.
Cahir started Middleburg Juice Company, and on the last day of last year, joined with Alicia Swanstrom’s Greenheart Juice Shop to form a fast-growing, environmentally friendly, cold-pressed juice company.
As Greenheart expands from a shop in Aldie to eight locations by the end of this year—including McLean, Vienna, Alexandria and a new processing facility in Chantilly—it’s greening its practices.
“Single-use plastic is pretty much the single worst thing you can do for the Earth,” says Cahir, whose company is moving to corn-based cups, containers, straws, knives, forks and spoons. Unlike plastic, it’s biodegradable.
Greenheart also uses glass bottles with metal caps (for delivery customers, the company picks up and recycles the glass); offers paper to-go bags; sends byproducts from the making of the raw, unpasteurized juice to be composted or picked up by local farmers for pig feed; buys LED lighting; and collects rainwater to use for cleaning delivery cars and coolers.
Up next for Greenheart: growing its own vegetables and herbs at its 150-acre Red Gate Farm and building out the juice bars with espresso programs (from roaster Lone Oak in Winchester) and additional food offerings besides smoothie bowls and nut milks.
From Australia, or as Cahir says, “one big desert surrounded by water,” he grew up with the inherent sensibility to treat the planet’s limited resources with respect—and not just on April 22’s Earth Day. // Juices, nut milks and smoothies start at $10
This post was originally published in our April 2019 issue. Interested in more food content? Subscribe to our monthly print magazine and weekly e-newsletter.
