In recent years, juice bar franchises have risen in popularity as Americans have become more conscious of eating healthy.
Smoothies and juices seem to be a fantastic menu item with the potential to pack in the nutrition while tasting great. They are often promoted as heart-healthy, detoxifying, or protein-filled options for an active lifestyle.
What the juice bar franchise doesn’t say is that as far as nutrition goes, they may actually be lacking in vital nutrients as part of an overall healthy diet.
Many juicing franchises have had to go beyond the smoothie or juice blend, building out their menu to offer sandwiches, soups, and salads in order to provide customers with a filling, complete meal.
At Yampa Sandwich Co., we skip the high-calorie, sugary drinks of a juice bar franchise and offer our customers real, whole food nutrition that can help them power through their day.
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The Juice Bar Franchise’s Nutrition May Be Less Healthy Than Consumers Think
The widespread belief is that smoothies from juice bar franchises are healthy because they condense many fruits or vegetables into a single drink. It may come as a surprise to learn that that’s not always true.
Part of the value of eating whole foods is in the energy we use to consume them. When the smoothie is blended, it does the “chewing” for the consumer. This may be negligible for occasional consumption, but having smoothies more often means less energy is expended over time.
When juice bar franchises blend their smoothies with juice, they may be leeching away vital nutrients. Juice substitutes that replace whole fruits or vegetables are often processed or pasteurized, which removes micronutrients from the fruits and vegetables.
For example, the skin of an apple or the pith of an orange (the white, spongy bit between the flesh of the fruit and the peel) can be quite high in fiber. Without them, the smoothie loses some nutritional density.
Smoothies with fruit juices rather than whole foods may contain a higher sugar content.
While many consumers think choosing non-fat yogurt or lower fat milk is healthier, there is often sugar added to improve the taste. It may not actually save calories to go the low-fat/no-fat route.
Balanced meals require a proportionate percentage each of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.
While whole milk or whole yogurt can bring the fat content up, smoothies may still be missing complex carbohydrates and protein.
Protein powders can be included, but just like with substituting in fruit juices for whole fruits, protein powders lack the micronutrients of the whole protein itself.
Additionally, smoothies as a complement to a complete meal may add quite a few calories overall.
As a meal replacement, some smoothies may offer balanced nutrition, provided they’re made with whole foods and whole-milk products. But as an addition to a meal, consumers could be getting a lot more calories than they realize.
The Yampa Sandwich Co. Sandwiches Are Designed to Be Nutritionally Balanced Whole Foods
The Yampa Sandwich Co. founders started in Steamboat Springs, Colorado with a vision for providing high-quality, harm-free, portable sandwiches for adventurous people.
From the beginning, the focus was on made-from-scratch menu items that contain no harmful chemicals, additives, pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics.
By their very nature, Yampa Sandwich Co. sandwiches are made up of whole foods. With whole grain bread, customers get complex carbohydrates that are converted to energy more slowly in the body than simple carbohydrates.
The antibiotic- and hormone-free lean meats come from sustainably raised, humanely treated animals—another important factor seeing increased demand in today’s food economy. These proteins fuel the body and help our customers feel full and satisfied for a longer period of time than what’s possible with a smoothie.
All of our produce is sourced carefully to ensure the highest quality, so the lettuce is crisp, the avocados are creamy and perfectly ripe, and the tomatoes are tangy and fresh.
We take great care with these and the rest of our ingredients, with a focus on delivering them to our customers as recognizable whole foods.
While we emphasize inventive flavor combinations and craveable foods, almost everything on our menu is clearly identifiable, without fillers, extras, or additives.
The Yampa Sandwich Co. Franchise Has Longevity Where Juice Bar Franchises are Still in Their Infancy
The juice bar franchise trend is incredibly recent compared to the sandwich franchise business.
While they may share similar target demographics—consumers who are interested in powerful superfoods that can fuel them through their busy days—the question remains for how long the juicing trend will continue.
While some of the longer-lived juice bar franchises go back to the 1970s, some of today’s bigger brands began in the 1990s or 2000s.
There is still much to be learned about whether consumers benefit from getting their nutrients in liquid form. Many dieticians believe people get more fiber and micronutrients from eating their food rather than drinking it.
Americans consume more than 300 million sandwiches every day. It’s a convenient, easy-to-pack, and nutritious food with a lot of room for creative flavors and different varieties. Having been around since the mid-1700s, the sandwich isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
The Yampa Sandwich Co. brand has been a Colorado staple in Steamboat Springs, Fort Collins, and Denver for 20 years, with a long-lived business model that supports franchising investments.
The Yampa Sandwich Co. Franchise Investment
Do you want to know the juice bar franchise cost? As franchises go, the Yampa Sandwich Co. franchise can be an affordable option when compared to a juice bar franchise. It begins with only a $25,000 franchise fee, which is part of the initial total investment between $295,750 and $527,900.
With franchising investment in Yampa Sandwich Co., franchise owners receive comprehensive support, beginning with start-up operations, pre-opening training, ongoing training on systems and processes, and guidance on general business management.
Looking for a juice bar franchise opportunity? The Yampa Sandwich franchise can be an excellent alternative. Investors also receive access to our approved technologies from POS programs to accounting platforms to help maintain a smoothly running business from the very first day.
Once a Yampa Sandwich Co. franchise location opens, we continue to provide ongoing support and guidance on marketing strategies to help with local visibility and brand awareness in that territory.
If you’re interested in a franchise investment opportunity that’s part of the fast-casual restaurant industry and centers around whole, healthier foods delivered with genuine, good-for-you ingredients and no gimmicks, perhaps a Yampa Sandwich Co. franchise opportunity is the one. Contact us today for more information.
