Cold-pressed juice cafe opens in Dripping Springs

DRIPPING SPRINGS — A cancer diagnosis didn’t stop one Dripping Springs resident. In fact, it catapulted her into creating a business that thrives on letting food be your medicine.

Alchemy Juice + Coffee has wrapped up its first few weeks of operations at its second and newest location at 400 U.S. 290, Suite C-101 in Dripping Springs. Alchemy Juice was founded by Carly Brown in February 2020 as a home juice delivery service, but the journey to creating the business came from a life-changing experience.

After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in November 2019, Brown opted to look at her diagnosis in a unique way, saying she turned to raw, organic, cold-pressed juice as part of her healing process.

“I did a lot of integrative healing on my cancer journey. I stayed at holistic cancer clinics down in Mexico, I read a lot of books about juicing detoxification [and] healing the body from the inside out with a focus on cellular support,” Brown said. “I was juicing at home every day … While I was going through that, I saw the need to bring this type of juice to the community.”

Taking everything she learned, Alchemy Juice was born. It initially started out as an online-only store with home deliveries, which Brown said was able to remain successful through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo by Brittany Anderson
Alchemy Juice’s newest location in Dripping Springs opened in late February. Along with still running the online and home-delivery service, the business’ first location can be found at Casa de Luz Village in Austin.[/caption]

“We’re kind of like the modern day milk woman,” Brown said. “We do everything in glass bottles. We have a juice production facility where we make everything. Then, every Monday and Thursday, we do door-to-door deliveries. We drop the glass bottles at their door, they drink it, they put their bottles outside and we pick it up the next time.”

In June 2021, Alchemy opened its first walk-up window at Casa de Luz Village in South Central Austin. In 2022, the team started planning for a Dripping Springs location, which officially opened in late February 2023. The new location made sense for the brand; Brown resides in Dripping Springs and Alchemy’s 1,000-squarefoot production facility is located right before the city limits, just west of Austin.

“We work out of a commercial kitchen,” Brown explained. “We have six different juicers that we use and we use different types of juicers for different vegetables, fruit and herbs because we want to extract them in a specific way. That's not something that a lot of people do; they’re just going to dump it all in the biggest juicer that they can find which is why things taste watery … We triple wash everything in filtered alkaline water. We use all organic [produce]. Everything is done with so much intention. It's definitely not a factory; it's people standing there on machines, juicing, hand pouring, all of that.”

Brown said that starting the business required her to dive right in — “Very ‘jump off the end and find your way.’” “Juicing is not an easy industry to be in and it's why a lot of people don't do it that well,” Brown said. “They cut corners, they add water, they don't use organic produce, they use plastic bottles or they do something called high pressure pasteurization, which essentially kills all of the live enzymes. That's what you find at the grocery store. The reason juice can sit on the grocery store shelves for months at a time is because they've killed all the enzymes and that's actually the healing component of it. Our shelf life is only five days.”

“Unless someone cares body, mind, soul, spirit about this mission … that’s why no one does it the way that we do; because of the why of why we started,” Brown continued. “We weren't like, ‘Oh, let's make a company and make some money on some juice.’ It's not enormously profitable.”

Alchemy’s colorful juice line targets everything from cell repair and detoxification to immune support and digestive health. The brand also offers 4-ounce health shots, hydrating beauty water (packed with chlorophyll, cucumber and mint) and a nut milk made from cashews, almonds and dates, sweetened with vanilla and cinnamon. Plus, all packaging is compostable or recyclable.

Inside the cafe, Alchemy has a growing food menu, including smoothie and açaí bowls, a hummus plate, avocado toast, grab-and-go salads and sweets and a nourishing spring roll bowl. The cafe also serves up chaga lattes and chaga chocolate donuts made from chaga mushrooms.

Brown said that after moving to Dripping Springs, she found that there was no health-supportive food so in time, she hopes to grow the menu.

For now, however, their focus is on providing the community with the organic cold-pressed juices, as well as organic coffee and superfood lattes.

“With the level of intention of how we do things, our menu can't be so robust,” Brown said. “But it really feels like a deep service to the community. This week, that's been a lot of what it is. Like, ‘Thank you for coming, we needed a place like this.’ People were ready for it. People wanted it.”

Brown’s passion to share her healing journey is evident. The Dripping Springs location is set to host talks on nutrition, personal development and more (catch the first one on March 16 at 6:30 p.m.) and the team is planning for a future location in Fort Worth, similar to the walk-up window at Casa de Luz.

“The entrepreneurial journey, I always say, is the greatest personal development journey that you'll ever go on,” Brown said. “I've learned about my own capacities, to really be able to expand my capacity and that I actually can do a lot more than I think that I can do. [I’m] a mother of two [with] two cafes and a third on the way. I also run an online health focused business, I run online detox programs and educate people about clean water.”

Brown, a native New Yorker who has called Texas home for more than a decade, has also seen firsthand the beauty of community through this process.

“The community has rallied around us every step of the way. I always say that Alchemy is not mine … She was meant to come into this world and the way that the community rallies around to support, to share, to show up is what makes us, us,” Brown said. “I love Texas … It really makes it feel like home to have people show up and appreciate what we do. So I'm always working to pour into the community as much as I can as they pour into us … It's this beautiful reciprocal energy. I think it's easy to feel — especially as adults — lonely. I found one thing I've learned is that as much as I show up, people are showing up as well. And so it gives me a deep love for community.”

Alchemy Juice ships overnight and on dry ice across the nation. Subscriptions are also available and customizable. Bi-weekly home deliveries are available within a certain radius. Visit www. alchemyorganicjuice.com for more information.