Why Juices are Getting Smaller

For years the standard bottle of cold-pressed juice has been 16 or 17 ounces (often times “16 oz” bottles are actually 16.7), but lately you may have noticed a trend – the bottles are getting smaller, and coming in at around 12 oz / 350 ml. Let’s look at why…

Why the standard was 16 ounces

When juicing was first gaining popularity around 2011, “cleansing” was the main focus. Celebrities were talking about it, people were blogging about it, and the results were amazing. People would report weight loss, higher energy, and in general felt great during and after a cleanse of 3 days or more. When cleansing, an entire day’s worth of food consists of five or six juices, making a bottle of juice essentially a meal replacement. So indeed, a full 16 ounces of juice is necessary in order to get enough calories and nutrients as a meal replacement.

Cleansing was a trend that peaked a couple of years ago. It’s still a thing, and many people still are doing regular juice cleanses with equally as positive results, but much of the juicing population has learned to work juicing into their daily routine in conjunction with solid foods. When drinking a bottle of juice along with regular 3-5 meals per day, it’s unnecessary to consume full 16 oz portions, assuming you are getting enough nutrients from your other food for a sustainable, healthy diet. Hence, there has been a gradual shift to smaller bottles of juice.

Now if you walk down the juice aisle at Whole Foods, you will notice that nearly all of the national brands have started adding smaller servings to their offerings, including Suja, Evolution Fresh, and Forager.

Advantages of smaller portions for a juice business

1. Daily consumption – Encourages regular, multiple servings per day as opposed to being a meal replacement.
2. Lower price point – Allows companies to lower the price of a bottle of juice, targeting a broader market.
3. Higher profitability – A juice business may be able to obtain more profit per ounce at a smaller serving size.
4. Higher hourly production – Clearly it’s easier to produce more bottles per hour when the bottles are smaller.

Offering multiple sizes

I’ve been thinking a lot about various juice sizes since I got into the industry, and I’ve formed the (humble) opinion that a standard offering should be 12 ounces, but a business can keep the 16 ounce sizes on the menu for juice cleanse packages. If you are currently offering 16 ounce servings, try also offering 12 ounce servings and see how your customers respond. Maybe they would prefer to save $1 or $2 per bottle and get a few ounces less of juice per serving. If they continue to purchase the more expensive 16 oz portions, then by all means, give your market what they want.

If you have any thoughts on this or you have done any experimenting, let our readers know by commenting below.