Ready to rumble: Jungle Juice’s Natalia Quintana and Guido Annoni
Victoria Cosford
I honestly feel healthier just reading the list of smoothie and fruit juice ingredients! Broccoli and silverbeet, celery and beetroot. Berries and kale, turmeric and honey. Mint and berries and cucumber: the list goes on… but wait, there’s more, there’s chia seeds and spirulina and acai powder too! Soy milk if you spurn regular!
Jungle Juice has been part of the farmers’ markets since 2010, and in the hands of Guido Annoni and Natalia Quintana for the past two. Both are Argentinian and have hospitality backgrounds but when they relocated here from Sydney they ‘wanted something more’, Guido tells me. To their luck they found this business for sale – ‘a perfect match’ – and at the farm in Mooball they lease from the original owners they pick the glorious, often exotic fruit that goes into the delectable smoothies and juices they sell. ‘It’s so meaningful to be able to provide people with produce so beneficial to their health’, Guido says. Their Immunity Boost Juice, for example, featuring turmeric, apple, honey, lemon and black pepper, sounds like the ideal way to fortify oneself for the coming winter.
The ‘star’ fruit according to Guido, are dragonfruit and black sapote. The former, unmistakeable with its vibrant leather-look skin (hence its name) comes from a species of cactus. Inside it has a texture like kiwifruit – including its tiny black crunchy seeds – brilliantly coloured flesh, and is rich in antioxidants. Black sapote, often referred to as chocolate pudding fruit owing to its gorgeous rich taste, the colour is a type of persimmon and is loaded with vitamins, fibre and potassium. ‘Both fruits are loved by our customers’, Guido says. ‘We sell both fruits fresh and incorporate them into our smoothies.’ The couple hope to expand into making smoothie bowls, but for now they have their hands full keeping the community healthy!
Jungle Juice is at Mullumbimby every Friday from 7–11am
