The juicing craze has taken Fairfield County by storm, as evidenced by ubiquitous franchises and independently owned juice bars in neighboring towns. New Canaan may have been a bit behind the curve—that is, until the Connecticut Sandwich Company opened its doors back in November.
Eugene Chun making his first Green juice batch of the day.
Better known for innovative sandwiches and gigantic breakfast wraps, the Pine Street eatery has developed what could be one of the freshest, most nutritious and tastiest beverages in town with its three varieties of freshly squeezed juices.
Owner Eugene Chun said he’s always been a fan of juicing and wanted to incorporate it into his new concept. The challenge for Chun was figuring out how to balance the time-consuming process of making the juice with the time-sensitive nature of the lunch hour rush, he said.
“I always wanted to juice, but I was focused on sandwiches,” Chun told NewCanaanite.com. “I never thought they’d be able to work together because it’s a lot of work doing the juice and I figured we’d have to make it every single time for every customer. And in New Canaan people only have 20-30 minutes before they have to go back to the office. It didn’t seem very viable.”
Juice menu at Connecticut Sandwich Company.
So Chun tinkered with a few different combinations until he developed three different juices he felt had the right mix of flavor and nutritional value—the “Green” (kale, green apple, pineapple, spinach ginger), the “Red” (beet, apple, carrot, grapefruit, ginger) and the “Detox” (kale, pineapple, lemon, cucumber, apple, ginger). The purpose of coming up with the set flavors as opposed to customizable juices was twofold: Chun was able to find flavors that appealed to the masses while being able to make the product in bulk.
So far, the results have been spectacular.
The "Detox" juice.
“The Green juice by far has been the most popular,” Chun said. “The Detox is similar to the green, but it just has a little more tang to it. There’s more pineapple than apple. In the beginning, no one was trying the Red. I think people were intimidated by the beets. But recently we’ve had to make just as much Red as Detox. I personally like the Red the most.”
Chun makes roughly two vats of juice each day to ensure the beverages are fresh. He also strains it to take out any pulp or seeds that might have made their way through the juicer.
“It’s like a juice you would get in a bottle,” Chun said. “But it’s made that day. So far the juice reception has been great and it’s only grown with the nice weather.”