JUICED! : Fresh Fruity Flavor from Guacamaya Juice

by Ted Scheffler

This past weekend, my wife and I ventured down to the Made in Utah Winter Fest which is presented by Utah Stories and The Gateway. The Made in Utah Winter Fest is a community-driven, free to the public, and family-friendly market that showcases some of Utah’s top artists, musicians, artisans, and product makers including breweries, distilleries, restaurants, food trucks, and other local businesses in Utah.

One of the many interesting food and drink vendors at Winter Fest is Guacamaya Juice, which is owned by Nahomi Artal. Before coming upon their booth at Winter Fest, I had seen some folks walking around The Gateway with big colorful bottles of juice that had bits of fresh fruit floating in it. It piqued my curiosity and, as I said, eventually discovered the Guacamaya Juice booth.

Guacamaya Juice is a family-owned local business. They moved from Venezuela and have lived in Utah since 2009. In 2017, they started making tropical juice at community markets. Since then, their delicious beverage has graced many people's palates.

As I discovered at Winter Fest, It turns out the Guacamaya Juice produces tizana, a fruit drink made with fresh lemon, pineapple, peaches, apples, passion fruit, watermelons, melons, pears, bananas, and mangoes. They also offer cocada: real organic coconut that’s made into a slushy.

Artal says that it was their dad (Guacamaya Juice is a family business) who was the initial motivation for creating the business: “When I was a little kid my dad used to make this amazing juice everyone loved. So after I came to Utah and finished school, I was very motivated to start a juice business because of the old memories I had. I really wanted people to also be able to enjoy what I enjoyed back in the day.”

If you’d like to try a glass or jug of Guacamaya Juice, I have good news. They will be participating in the Made in Utah Winter Fest both this weekend and the following weekend: December 14 & 15 and December 21 & 22. I’ll bet you know someone who’d love to find fresh Guacamaya Juice under the Christmas Tree.