In downtown Billings, Fresco Juice Co serves fresh food with a joyful spirit. Beginning at the end of 2022, Cindy Martin Beers offers cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, housemade cashew milk, smoothies, bowls, toasts, salads, and soups.
Cindy worked as an outpatient dietitian in the mid-90s, specializing in diabetes and eating disorders. She helped patients better understand how food impacted their physical and mental health. In 2004, Cindy decided to leave her work to raise her family. As she raised her children, her desire to provide healthy food continued. However, she found procuring fresh and healthy options difficult in Billings.
Over the years, she struggled with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). She was unable to consume whole fruits and vegetables without experiencing discomfort.
While on a trip with a friend in Colorado in 2021, Cindy discovered cold-pressed juices. Returning home, she began juicing and found that her digestive challenges moderated. Her feeling better inspired her to dream of making organic fresh juices available to the Billings community.
The name "fresco" came from the suggestion of a foreign exchange student staying with Cindy's family. With his Italian heritage, he suggested "fresco," which means fresh in his language.
The word "fresco" is Cindy's business mantra. Cindy says, "I'm trying to bring fresh juice, fresh foods to a community that has a harder time finding fresh in the 12 months of the year."
Raw produce makes up the juices at Fresco Juice Co. Cindy says, "They have a five maximum of a seven-day shelf life. The beauty of that is that when they are cold-pressed, you don't ruin all the nutrients. You don't damage the enzymes that come in your fruits and your vegetables. So you have a juice that you get not only the best taste, you get the best nutrients possible."
She explained that the juices in the grocery store with long shelf life have been pasteurized. "In the pasteurization, their product is damaged. The enzymes are damaged. Vitamins and minerals are damaged, are lost, the flavor is changed."
Along with flavor, the raw juices exude brilliant colors. The 14 Karrot is a bright orange-colored juice made with carrot, pear, and ginger. At the same time, Blue Juice is a vibrant azure composed of apples, lemon, cucumber, ginger, and blue spirulina flavored with espelette powder. The Healthy Hawaiian is bright red, while Mintana Green is a rich leaf green and Mighty Green, made with cucumber, spinach, kale, celery, lemon, parsley, ginger and salt is a true green.
"So blue spirulina comes from a freshwater algae," Cindy shares of this superfood. "One of the many benefits of the blue spirulina is it helps with inflammation, which our country and just our environment, the foods that we're eating, we are an inflamed country."
The Healthy Hawaiian, made with carrots, green apples, pineapple, fuji apple, lime, ginger, and beets, is reminiscent of the processed beverage with Punchy and Olaf on the label. The bright red juice contains carrots, apples, pineapple, lime, ginger, and beets.
"Healthy Hawaiian is a sweeter juice. We have a spectrum from very sweet all the way up to lots of vegetables and very few carbohydrates. And the reason that we did that is that we want to have a juice for everybody. And I always look at somebody that comes into the shop, if they've never tasted one of our juices, I'm confident that we can find a juice out of our lineup that they will like."
Cindy always has samples open for customers to taste before they purchase a juice.
Shots, more concentrated and smaller volume juices, are also available for a blast of goodness. Tame the Flame reduces inflammation with extracts of pineapple, green apple, cucumber, ginger, parsley, and lime. At the same time, Get Up and Go Shot, made with fuji apple, beet, carrot, lime, and ginger, makes for a good cleanse and bursts of energy. Flu Shot provides an immunity boost and anti-inflammatory benefits with carrot, lemon, fuji apple, ginger, turmeric, and espelette powder.
Fresco Juice Co also presses cashews for milk. "They are a great alternative to dairy milk. We have a Holly Cacao, which is our take on chocolate milk," Cindy shares. "You see almond milk all over the place. I really wanted to have something that was a little bit more different."
Cindy is making her juices more readily available through refrigerated vending machines. Currently, a machine that accepts credit cards can purchase her juices at Black Orchid. Another vending machine will be in the basement of the First Interstate Bank Building.
Fresh food is also available at Fresco Juice Co. The In House menu offers bowls made with açaí based bowls blended with banana and coconut water topped with granola, coconut, fruit, local honey, and cocoa nibs for The Classic and Nuttin' Better blended with almond butter, housemade cashew milk, and bananas adorned with bananas, granola, fruit, almond butter, honey and bee pollen.
The smoothie selections include Berry, Tropical Green, Cacao Protein, and Mocha Protein. Ricotta, avocado, or banana top the Toast with the country loaf bread baked down the street at Le Fournil. Salads and a fresh soup are also available daily.
Cindy wants her juices and food to be healing and a nurturing environment for her employees. "I am providing a unique space for people to work, to have a great job where they can grow and be themselves."
She hopes to "see growth in helping people get healthy and see how these foods can transform our community."
