A sip of New York in Sector V - Girl behind first mobile health juice station targets 100 units in 900 days

Arundhuti Dutta at The Juice Station. (Anindya Shankar Ray)

A juicy business idea inspired by the Big Apple and conceived by a Calcutta girl has borne fruit, giving the city its “first mobile health juice bar”.

Former Deloitte consultant Arundhuti Dutta, 28, would miss her regular “fruit smoothie with health boosters” so much after quitting her New York job to return home that she decided to not only make one for herself every morning but also get her hometown hooked on it.

Arundhuti rolled out The Juice Station — a yellow van stocked with fresh fruits, health boosters and “100 per cent” natural concentrated fruit pulp — in Salt Lake last month and is planning to expand the business to “100 units in 900 days” along with mall kiosks and concept stores.

“The idea came to me when I discovered that no place in the city served the fruit smoothies with health boosters that I would have for breakfast on my way to office in New York City every morning. I thought to myself: ‘Why not introduce a mobile juice bar?’,” said Arundhuti, a Loreto House alumnus with a masters in social work from New York University.

The Juice Station, currently parked opposite the RDB Boulevard in Sector V, is already popular among the techie crowd with its “100 per cent natural fruit juices, smoothies and milk shakes made in front of the customer”.

Juice vans targeting morning walkers in front of Victoria Memorial and Dhakuria Lake, and office-goers on Camac Street, are in the pipeline.

The staff at The Juice Station provide nutritional information about each of the drinks and customers have a choice of customising their beverages with soy protein, whey protein, organic wheatgrass or wholegrain flaxseed.

If you need to focus on work after a night of partying, The Juice Station offers a cure for hangovers called the Hangover Helper, made from pineapple, banana and oranges. There is also a section for those who wouldn’t mind being “a little unhealthy”, as Arundhuti puts it. The temptations include Vanilla Chai Frappe and Chocolate Delight.

“We are still in the process of finding out what clicks and what needs to be changed,” said Arundhuti.