Good Eats: 5 Holiday Healthy Juice Cocktails

December 7th, 2015 • BY Morgan Tilton

Chinking cocktails with a merry huzzah is a joyful treat at the typical holiday party. For the next round, pour a few juice cocktail libations with toast-worthy health perks.

“All cocktails are good in my book, but if you’re going to have one, why not use great fresh ingredients that also have some nutritional value?” asks Daniel Winer, Juicepresso USA CEO, who has been juicing adamantly for five years in an effort to tap more easily into the elixir-like benefits of vegetables.

One recent 2014 study from the University College London found that over a 12-year period people who ate seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day had a 42 percent lower risk of death at any point in time than those who ate less than one portion. Specifically, eating such a diet of fibrous and leafy green foods reduces the risks of death caused by cancer and heart disease by 25 percent and 31 percent respectively.

Furthermore, vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit. One of the most appealing aspects of juicing is that you can consume 8 to 10 rations of fruits and veggies in one glass, said Winer, who first started researching the potential gains of juicing when his mother was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.

“I read about a clinic in San Diego that was having significant progress on various diseases through juicing. The idea being, flood your body with nutrients, because the best thing to fight any disease is your immune system, if it can do it. People were living longer and seemed to have better quality of life while they were doing it,” said Winer.

The potential health improvements sparked his interest. He started drinking a green juice after each gym workout, and noticed his soreness nearly vanish. At the end of the month, his credit card bill reflected the harrowing truth of how expensive it can become to order from a juice bar daily.

He transitioned to the do-it-yourself route, purchasing an old-fashioned centrifugal juicer. But, with time, Winer learned the drawbacks with the design: The machine’s high RPM creates heat and oxidizes the food, decreasing the overall nutrients and enzymes.

“Speed creates friction, which creates heat. The cell structures are very delicate; when you rip them apart oxygen gets in and destroys the nutrients,” says Winer, noting this also means that leftover juice already has a jumpstart on the spoiling process. Plus, juice is lost in the pulp, so—on top of being wasteful and inefficient—you’re not getting the most out of each dollar spent on groceries.

Winer’s solution was to switch to cold-pressed juicing, which avoids friction by slowly masticating the food and effectively squeezing out most to all of the juice. Sans oxidation, the nutritional value is maintained, sums up Winer, and any extra juice he makes stays fresh for 72 hours in the fridge.

Check out Winer’s list of his favorite fresh juice cocktails and herb beverages for the holiday season:

Pineapple, Mint, Berry

1-large pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into cubes

1-cup strawberries

1-pear

30-fresh mint leaves

Directions:

Wash the ingredients well, then cut them up as needed to fit through the chute of your juicer. 

Add 2oz of vodka per serving. Juice the ingredients in the order listed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately.

Ho Ho Holiday Juice

2 handfuls of cherries (1-2 cups) pitted

2 apples (cored)

Juice together for a rich burgundy-red juice.

Add vodka to taste. Shake and serve up. Garnish with a mint leaf.

Mango-Grapefruit 

This is a great juice to start of the New Year. The ginger and grapefruit give it a little zing, and screams “celebrate!” Try it for breakfast without alcohol.

2 Mangos

1 Apple

1 Grapefruit

1/4 inch of ginger

Add 2 oz. of vodka or spiced rum and pour over ice.

 

The New Year’s Eve Toasting Drink

This is great to toast with when the clock strikes midnight! 

A few pineapple rings or spears

1 lemon (peeled)

Champagne

Juice the pineapple and lemon. Fill half a glass with ice and pour the juice on top. Then, pour a few ounces of champagne on top of the juice. 

This recipe only makings one glass of juice. 

Tip: If you are making this for several people just juice 1 or two pineapples with a few lemons beforehand. Stick it in the fridge and have the juice ready to go for your party. 

 

The Day-After Hangover Helper

Juice:

3 tomatoes

1 stalk of celery

2 inches of cucumber

Add:

A dash of Tabasco sauce

Salt and pepper

2oz of water OR vodka if you’d like an alcoholic version

Fill a glass half with ice. Juice the tomatoes, celery and cucumber. Add the tobacco, salt and pepper and mix together. Then add either the water or vodka. Stir together and pour over top of the ice.