Clean body, clean spirit: New juice bar allows owners to combine health, faith, business

When Monique and Jeremiah McLean went on a retreat to Florida in December 2018, they meant to relax and take some things off their plate.

What they found instead was Clean Juice, a 100% certified organic juice bar franchise.

“We walked in and were like, ‘We want to open one of these stores,’” Monique said.

They went back to their home near Mt Laurel and prayed about opening their own Clean Juice franchise. In February, this prayer was answered when the McLeans celebrated the grand opening of Clean Juice in Tatterstall Park.

They were first attracted to how Clean Juice stores look — Jeremiah said the Florida franchise was nice, clean and bright — but they really fell in love with the company’s values.

“It’s a faith-based company,” Jeremiah said. “And we’re passionate about infusing faith in our business.”

At the Tatterstall Park Clean Juice, a T-shirt for sale hanging near the cash register reads, “I run on Jesus and juice.” A jar at the other end of the counter is for prayer requests, and after the store had been open a couple of weeks, the jar was already half full from notes left by customers.

In addition to infusing their faith into their business, Monique said it was important that the franchise served healthy options.

“We feel that you are supposed to be healthy in body, soul and spirit,” Monique said. “A lot of times, even in the church world, people are very focused on their spirit being strong, but not on their physical bodies. But our bodies — we need to keep them strong and healthy.”

In addition to juice, they serve smoothies, açaí bowls, quinoa and toast. They also have six cold-pressed juice options that customers can grab and go. These juices can be served on their own, or customers can buy all six to drink during a 24-hour juice cleanse.

“We focus a lot on cleanses, so that gives us the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, what are your goals? Have you ever cleansed before?” Monique said. “We believe everybody is on a journey. Everybody is just on a different point in their journey.”

The items on the Clean Juice menu are what Jeremiah calls an “easy first step” to starting a health journey.

“You could come in here and get something that tastes great and make one little step toward starting your health journey that could really turn into a lifelong thing,” Jeremiah said. “Just one step at a time, getting healthier and healthier.”

All of the ingredients on the menu are certified organic. If something isn’t organic — for example, if they can’t find any organic strawberries to purchase that day — they’ll write that ingredient on the “transparency board” that hangs near the register.

They don’t use any processed sugars. Instead, they use maple syrup, honey and dates to sweeten their menu items. Everything is made in-house.

When asked about her best day at the restaurant so far, Monique said it was the night before the grand opening. Some of the employees asked if they could have a worship service and prayer at the restaurant.

“They were in here with a little guitar and sang,” Monique said. “They were praying about different aspects of the business and the customers coming in.”

It was like a “proud parent moment,” Jeremiah said.

“You did all this work to get to this point,” he said. “There are points throughout opening a business you think, ‘Should I have done this?’ And then it’s moments like that where you think, ‘This is why I did it.’”

Clean Juice is located at 6215 Tatterstall Blvd. For more information, call 205-518-5544.