This weekend I found the first all vegan restaurant in Napa Valley! Nekter Juice Bar offers freshly blended Juices, Smoothies and Acai Bowls all free of animal products. The base for the fresh juices ranges from carrot to orange to celery to apple juice. You can then add your choice of nutrient rich kale, spinach, parsley, ginger, lemon, cucumber, beets, broccoli and grapes. The juices range from 120 to 380 calories so are perfect for a snack or a light meal. The smoothie can be made with apple or orange juice, delicious housemade vanilla cashew milk or coconut water. There are many delicious add-ins including strawberries, blueberries, banana, pineapple, dates, acai and pitaya. You can also tempt your taste buds by adding agave nectar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cacao or cayenne. The smoothies range from 210 to 480 calories and are perfect for an energy-packed meal replacement. The Acai Bowls are made with either vanilla cashew milk or coconut water blended with many different healthy ingredients like fruits, coconut butter, peanut butter, dates and raw coconut and then topped with hempseed granola and a drizzle of agave nectar. The Bowls range from 390 to 520 calories and will keep you going all day long! The smoothies and bowls are delicious, satisfying and very filling! The juices are packed full of nutrient rich vegetables that naturally rid your body of toxins, give you a caffeine-free pep to your step, give your skin a refreshed glow, or load your body with antioxidants so you can embrace the day!

Steve and Alexis Schulze are a couple who have a passion for healthy living and wanted to bring goodness into our world of unhealthy consumption. Their quest began in trying to find the perfect nutritious and tasty alternative to coffee to start their day. What they found were juice bars claiming their juices were good for you but were nothing more than sugar filled, preservative laden substitutes. Instead of giving up and resigning themselves to a lifetime of home juicing, they went to work creating a simple blueprint for a vibrant, neighborhood juice bar overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables! Thinking outside the juice box, they went to work creating delicious recipes for the Nekter menu. In 2010, Steve and Alexis opened their very first Nekter Juice Bar in Costa Mesa, California offering their fresh juice and smoothies packed with robust greens, an assortment of nutritious snacks, the acai bowls and prebottled Nekter Grab-n-Go. They also included the 1, 2, 3 or 5-day Nekter Cleanse Program to those of us who love to cleanse but don’t have the time to cold press 15 lbs. of fruits and vegetables a day! Before they knew it, their customers were retiring their coffee mugs for fresh juice instead. Steve and Alexis have since expanded throughout Southern California into Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. And thankfully into Napa Valley!!

I visited Nekter Juice Bar with my husband Steve and ordered the 24 ounce Tropical Cooler full of spinach, kale, pineapple, banana, coconut butter and coconut water. It was absolutely delicious and the smoothies’ 310 calories filled me and kept me satisfied for hours! Steve ordered the PB Bowl which was packed full of Acai, banana, strawberries, dates, peanut butter and their delicious housemade vanilla cashew milk all blended together and topped with hempseed granola, fresh strawberries, banana and a drizzle of agave nectar. This filling meal is packed with 520 calories and kept Steve going all afternoon! He didn’t want to share but he gave me a few bites for the good of my blog and it was amazing! This all cost us only about $13, was very nutrient dense and as filling and satisfying as many of the much more expensive meals I’ve had lately!

Nekter Juice Bar just opened at 3900 Bel Aire Plaza in September. They are open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday & Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is located between Pier 1 Imports and Yo Belle so it is the perfect spot to stop in when you need a quick healthy meal or snack to rejuvenate you for the rest of your shopping! Give your taste buds a treat and embrace the green juice. You will not only be thrilled with how delicious it is but will also offer yourself the priceless gift of improved health and well-being. And don’t we all need a little more of that!? Go nekter!!