By: Maria Williams

Tropical Harvest Slushies & Juices, founded in 2017, is a refreshing juice company based in Queens, New York, and is also available online. Made from the most vibrant, organic produce in the region, Tropical Harvest’s Jamaican-inspired slushies, juices, and smoothies are dedicated to beverage lovers everywhere. Founded by a mother and public health student Kishana Mills, the shop was created to bring the authentic taste of tropical fruit to the USA and stand as a healthy alternative to chemical-filled beverages currently flooding the market. 

From the Blue Mountains to Queens, New York, the shop’s traditional flavor combinations are filled with the delicious freshness, potentially nutritional benefits, and all-natural tang of a healthy midday treat. Kishana Mills was inspired to start Tropical Harvest after seeing her children deprived of vitamin-rich fruits and beverages when they moved to New York.

Back in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica, where Kishana was raised, the only food available was what came fresh from the earth. As a young girl, Kishana would watch in awe as her grandma whipped up the most amazing dishes and drinks with what she had at hand. Soon, she was quite the chef herself. But, when she moved in with her mother in the city for high school, she realized that urban areas, far from farms, had little to offer in terms of food diversity. The cornucopia offered to her in childhood was no longer easily accessible.

This truth became even more pronounced when she began living in New York with her children. The city’s abundance of culture and diversity was less reflected in its grocery stores. At this point, she had studied agriculture, nuclear medicine, and public health at college, and was more than privy to the harms of chemical powders, dyes, and preservatives— not to mention the amount of sugar per serving— that composed the vast majority of juices the city had to offer. 

So, when her children asked for a flavourful and nostalgic drink from Jamaica to quench their thirst, Kishana chose to make it herself, evoking the crisp green landscapes of her childhood on the island. With flavors offering the sweet taste of home, it was no wonder her kids fell in love with her creations as she had with her grandma’s. Slowly but surely, as word spread, friends and neighbors started inquiring about her services. “They would come across me on the street and ask about my juice. At some point, I said to my family, ‘You’re all going to have to pay for this!’,” recalls Kishana. And they responded with, ‘Yes, we will.’

This prompted her to carry out some local market research. Kishana took a trip to the supermarket and observed the available options. “It was blatant to me that there was no diversity in the flavors at the market.” Perhaps the result of subsidized American farming or the cost-effectiveness of chemical powders and dyes, at the end of the day, most pre-packaged mass-manufactured juices contain too much sugar and too few other essential nutrients like fiber.

Equally striking to Kishana was the sheer amount of community demand for her juices. Combinations like Pineapple Ginger, Beetroot & Lemon, and Jamaican Ginger Sorrel are strong reminders of tradition and home. Whether they grew up drinking it or hearing about it, one sip of that ambrosia can transport individuals right back home. “It creates a connection with your heritage. If you were raised in the tropics, it’s really a pleasure to get it here in the US. You might not expect to, but come to America and get yourself our juice! You know you’re not just drinking one,” she adds.

While she’s recreated the taste of home, there is one essential difference between what someone might get closer to the equator: sugar. Kishana adjusted her recipe to reduce the amount of sugar usually added to combat the metabolic diseases that many older individuals struggle with. 

She also uses organic, whole ingredients that offer consumers, young and old alike, potential health benefits. For instance, the famed Beetroot & Lemon flavor provides one with a hearty, high-fiber serving of naturally tart sweetness, while Tropical Harvest’s liquid gold, Pineapple Ginger is made with entire pineapples (skin included) and provides the doubly anti-inflammatory properties of the two main ingredients.

Preserving the fresh flavor and nutritional value, Tropical Harvest ensures that its juices are accessible to people of all ages. “The older generations get a wave of memories with every sip. While younger people get to keep our culture alive and consume the drinks they drank at their relatives’ houses,” notes Kishana, “At the same time, they are the health-conscious generation, so they get heritage and clean ingredients in one bottle.”

With the wide-ranging desire for her juices cemented, Kishana officially registered Tropical Harvest as a business in 2017. In 2018, she tested the waters and produced 500 bottles for an event. Two hours in and she had sold out. She returned to the event in 2019 with 3000 bottles. She sold 2000 of them and sold the remaining 1000 to a grocery chain. She had just started to dig into growing Tropical Harvest when, in 2020, the pandemic hit. 

Regardless, it was clear to Kishana and all of Tropical Harvest’s customers that this was not a venture to give up on. The business went online and Kishana began to develop the blueprint to scale Tropical Harvest nationwide. To ship her treasured juices through online retailers, she had to figure out the exact logistics of delivering fresh, shelf-stable juice to doors across the country without depriving it of its essential nutrients and vibrant flavors. 

As a student of science, Kishana explored all the options from heat pasteurization, which cooks off a significant portion of a juice’s nutritional value, to UV treatment, which is far too expensive to currently operate in-house, to high-pressure processing (HPP). She has discovered that the use of UV and HPP treatment conserves all the deliciousness and health of the ingredients she uses for extraction while making the finished product safe to transport nationwide. 

Tropical Harvest Slushies & Juices is now in motion to be available to everyone craving a blast of the floral, fruity, and spicy tastes of home the shop offers. Dedicated to people and the planet above all else, Tropical Harvest is working to acquire funding for processing facilities that maintain its founding principles. As Kishana concludes, “They say the best brands are done with customer obsession. My juice potentially enhances health, evokes joy, and it’s flavorful, nutritious, and rich. Tropical Harvest was not something I intended to embark on, I just see the purpose and the benefits to my family, community, and society as a whole so I’m compelled to follow.”

Disclaimer

The information provided about Tropical Harvest and its products is for general informational purposes only. While the brand emphasizes the use of organic and natural ingredients, individual results or experiences with the products may vary. This content is not intended as a substitute for professional dietary, medical, or nutritional advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any significant changes to your diet, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions or concerns. Tropical Harvest products are crafted to support a healthier lifestyle, but their benefits are not guaranteed for everyone.

Published by Joshua F.