L40.41*410.
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carrot
Juice
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Kosher beet and carrot juice
find a home in Hamtramck.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Photos by Glenn Triest
Christoff Mirowski:
"Have a carrot juice."
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C
hristoffMirowski believes in
the power of juice.
As everyone knows, veg-
etables and fruits are good
for you, he points out, and in-
gesting them in liquid form
only speeds up the benefits.
Just drink this glass of car-
rot juice, he insists.
It's a frothy, clear bever-
age that is distinctly, well, or-
ange and surprisingly sweet.
No preservatives. No additives.
"In 15 minutes," Mr. Mirows-
ki says, "you'll feel it."
Mr. Mirowski is founder of
the new Back To Nature Juice
Co., a Hamtramck-based store
that sells juice on site and
delivers to homes and busi-
nesses throughout metro De-
troit.
Its menu ā carrot juice is
just the start ā may appear a
little curious to Americans, for
whom pineapple juice is about
as exotic as it gets. But Mr.
Mirowski is optimistic he'll find
an audience both within the
general public and especially
the Jewish community, because
his juices are certified kosher
by Rabbi Jack Goldman of the
Metropolitan Kashruth Coun-
cil of Michigan.
Mr. Mirowski is not Jewish,
but he knows well that "Jewish
people are very health-con-
scious," he says. "I had the idea
to make my juices kosher when
I started my business."
Back to Nature is located just
off I-75 on Caniff Avenue in an
old building with white walls
and floral moldings on the ceil-
ing. Inside at the front is a small
window with the menu. Exam-
ples include carrot juice, carrot
and lettuce juice, and carrot and
orange juice. Other delicacies
offer a combination of celery,
spinach, apple, grapefruit and
parsley.
Parsley juice?
It comes in small doses and
is mixed with other fruit and
vegetable juices, Mr. Mirowski
explains.
He'll soon be adding grape-
fruit, but he doesn't expect that,
or the orange juice, to become
the big seller. "Orange and
grapefruit juice you can buy
anywhere," he says.
Mr. Mirowski came to the
United States from Lodz,
Poland, in 1982. He opened
Back To Nature in September.
It's still slow going, he says.
"Like any business, it's hard to
get started."
But he's optimistic that his
decision to deliver juice will help
boost sales.
It takes about
two pounds of
carrots to make
one glass of juice.
Mr. Mirowski will deliver his
health juices, in any quantity,
with 50 percent off the first or-
der. For businesses with a large
number of employees, there is
a fax sheet that allows each per-
son to mark his or her request.
Orders will be filled the next
day. An 8 oz. bottle of carrot
juice costs $1. (It also is avail-
able in 16 oz. containers).
All the drinks are made fresh
on a large juicer housed at Back
To Nature. Two employees help
out, but Mr. Mirowski is in-
volved in every aspect of the
business himself, from deliver-
ink the juice to buying his pro-
duce from the Eastern Market
in Detroit. It takes about two
pounds of carrots to make one
glass of juice.
Probably his most popular
juice to date is carrot, which
also is a favorite throughout Eu-
rope (where the population has
little interest in the highly-
priced orange juice). Mr.
Mirowski offers American vis-
itors unfamiliar with his veg-
etable-fruit concoctions a brief
listing that describes their
health benefits as noted by Dr.
N.W. Walker, author of Raw
Vegetable Juices.
Cucumber juice, for example,
"is recognized as being proba-
bly the best natural diuretic
known, secreting and promot-
ing hair growth due to its high
silicon and sulfur content."
Spinach juice is said to help
teeth and gums. Beet juice can
"build up the red corpuscles of
the blood," and carrot juice "is
composed of a combination of
elements which nourish the en-
tire system."
But it's not just the long-term
benefits Mr. Mirowski touts
when promoting his juices.
"After lunch, in the after-
noon, you might need an ener-
gizer," he suggests. "Vegetable
juice takes only 15 minutes to
get into your body. Instead of a
candy bar, I say, 'Have a glass
of carrot juice.' "
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