Restaurant Review: The Big Carrot Organic Juice & Coffee Bar

THE BIG CARROT ORGANIC JUICE & COFFEE BAR

348 Danforth Avenue ~ thebigcarrot.ca/juice-bar Twitter: @the_bigcarrot ~ Instagram: @thebigcarrot Co-Diner: Tim Golem

Torontonian hippies know The Big Carrot. Open since 1983, this Danforth community market is a mecca for all things natural, local and organic. In fact they've taken over an entire street block which is now known as Carrot Common! Amidst the shops in the common you'll find the Organic Juice & Coffee Bar, the perfect little spot for an incredibly fresh and healthy beverage. I heard about them in NOW Toronto's Readers’ Choice poll which voted them as #1 Best Juice 2018. We visited on a Sunday afternoon, in the mood for delicious smoothies! The shop is cute and small, located right next door to the organic grocery store. It's a simple order-at-the-counter type of place but they do have a small seating area with a couple of stools should you choose to pop a squat. The menu is very large!! I had a very difficult time deciding on what to order because I wanted to try "their specialty," if such a thing exists. The friendly staff was hesitant to recommend only one specific drink and helped to guide me toward a decision. There are many options and many categories. From cold pressed juice to smoothies, shots, tonics, elixirs, detoxifiers... And even organic fair trade coffee. It's just a little bit overwhelming! Some of the drinks incorporate kombucha into their blends as well as various tinctures, apple cider vinegar, and Muskoka spring water. I loved the array of interesting ingredients. Unfortunately the shop also seemed to be out of a lot of ingredients at the time of my visit. They didn't have any celery, avocado, collard greens, wheat grass. These are ingredients that appear in many of their blends. This was disappointing and narrowed my options (which might have been a good thing?). They also regularly feature daily specials which sounded very good. The Healing Mushroom Milkshake sounded great and the Holiday Gut & Nerve Recovery sounded completely necessary. In the end, I chose the Earthly Paradise ($9.00/16oz), a blended smoothie from the Superfood Drinks section.

Coconut water, kale, collards, house-made raw cashew butter, coconut cream, chlorella, banana, ice.

I'm glad that it was green! For some reason I felt like my inaugural smoothie at The Big Carrot should be green. (Although I really should have just gotten a carrot juice and been done with it!!) I also grabbed a piece of Organic Banana Bread ($2.99). The smoothie was very good. They come in three sizes: 8oz, 16oz and 32oz. I found the 16oz to be the ideal smoothie size. I loved how well the ingredients worked together and the richness from the coconut and the cashew butter. Because they were all out of collards I believe that they gave me more kale to make up for it. I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to enjoy the smoothie in exactly the way that it was intended to be made. However, I still enjoyed it very much. This delicious cup of magic gave me life! I was also very impressed that their straws are made of corn and are entirely compostable! The banana bread was extremely good, better than the typical banana bread that I'm used to. Maybe because they use sour cream in their recipe? This slice of bread was incredibly moist and bursting with sweet banana flavour. I will come back to this juice bar any time that I'm on The Danforth! There are so many more things that I would like to try! The Change of Season, Maca Almond Sensation, PB & J, and Green Dream smoothies all sound amazing. I'm very curious to try some of the elixirs, like the Bliss Compound, Creation Compound, and Bacteria to the Future. The Ginger Turmeric cold pressed juice sounds great and I'd also really like to try their Chai Latte. So many more reasons to visit!!