St. Petersburg's Gush Juice has embarked on a mission to keep the city wheely cool this summer.
Last Friday, the cold-pressed juicery's juice trike rolled out to hydrate locals lunching downtown. Two more trikes are planned.
Gush's new on-the-go concept adds to a growing trend throughout the region: drink purveyors going mobile. Buddy Brew Coffee and Kahwa Coffee premiered java trucks last year, and Commune + Co. serves up pressure-brewed, nitro-tapped iced coffee from a tricycle in Ybor City (though it's come up against vendor restrictions and resistance from Tampa City Council).
According to Gabe Thomas, who co-owns Gush with his wife Kristen, the cruiser carries a small lineup of health foods, nitro coffee and a rotating inventory of at least four 16-ounce cold-press flavors selected from the 18 made at the juicery's Fourth Street headquarters.
Gush's Hydro Juice, also vended from the trike, is a popular seller. Gabe told CL it's the first cold-pressed, all-organic sports drink in the nation that uses negative ions to achieve maximum hydration.
Regionites will find the juice cruiser riding around Beach Drive and Central Avenue between noon and 2 p.m. during the week, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. The cruiser tends to park in front of BellaBrava on the corner of Beach and Second Avenue North from noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays, as well as near the Saturday Morning Market at Beach and First Avenue South.
Depending on the distance, the trike can take delivery orders, too.
Gabe says cold-press is the next big thing in the health-food industry, but people don't know enough about it. The cruiser is a way for Gush to draw attention to cold-press coffee and juice, he says, while capturing "the markets that are not really seen."
