The fruit and nothing but the fruit

Do you remember your first business dream? One of my first business dreams when I was a kid was to come up with a lemonade stand in our village. I got the idea from reading cartoon strips. Dennis the Menace’s girl friend Margaret would usually have a lemonade stand and Dennis would come up to her and give her one of his usual wisecracks. Back then, I thought, "Hmm, it really looks nice to go inside the cartoon strip and have a lemonade stand." Somehow, the idea of offering a totally natural, 100 percent fruit juice appealed to me. I thought to myself, "It would be nice to offer something that was pure and fresh for a change."

Unfortunately, I encountered some problems. For one thing, it’s too darn hot to stay out and be selling lemonade in this country. In a couple of minutes, your ice cold lemonade would be "warm lemonade" so you would have to change the sign after an hour. Moreover, lemons are not common here. We have kalamansi. And the problem there is that you would normally have to squeeze a hundred of those little suckers to make one pitcher of juice. Plus – and this was the sad part – people seemed to prefer the so-called "natural fruit juices" in tetra packs and bottles since they were more practical and handy

For the next couple of years, I entertained the thought of putting up a lemonade stand. But somehow, I never got to it. There were so many challenges. Like, where do I source inexpensive fruits, how do I store them, how do I squeeze out the juice from the fruit, etc. Also, I wondered if the general public was ready for an all-natural fruit juice stand. Eventually, I just gave up on the idea.

But then, recently, I was walking in the mall, and what do you know – I saw a natural fruit juice stand called Fruit Magic. Out of curiosity, I ordered the apple juice and the stall lady got a bunch of apples, and put them in this grinder, and out came the juice. When the cup was filled up, she gave it to me: 100 percent pure apple juice. No additives, no sugar, no preservatives.

For the first time, I drank something sweet and I wasn’t guilty one bit. And I drank that glass of juice in a matter of seconds... And ordered another one! It not only tasted good, it felt really good drinking it. Later on, I soon realized that I wasn’t the only one who felt this, because I noticed that Fruit Magic stalls were beginning to sprout everywhere.

I got the chance to meet the owner of the Fruit Magic chain of stores, Dr. Alan Escalona. Apparently, he had a barter deal with our sister company, NBC, and he wanted to pursue a similar arrangement with my company, MTV. So I had the chance to talk to him about his business and we had a really good conversation about Fruit Magic.

PHILIPPINE STAR: Doc, do you know that you’re living my childhood dream?

ALAN ESCALONA: You wanted to be a doctor?

No, no, I mean Fruit Magic! I wanted to have an all-natural fruit juice stand when I was growing up.

Oh, I see. Well, it’s a dream come true for me, too. Especially since it’s doing so well. People are now into living healthy lifestyles. And they are more conscious about what to drink and what not to drink. The business is really picking up.

Well, since you mentioned your being a doctor, can you tell me how you ended up in the business of selling natural fruit juice?

If I tell you, will you tell me how a lawyer like you ended up working in MTV?

Deal!

OK! Well, I can say that my evolution from a practicing doctor to a fresh fruit juice businessman was a natural process. Back when I was practicing medicine, I noticed that a lot of my patients got sick primarily because they weren’t living a healthy lifestyle. For one thing, they were not eating and drinking properly. And that’s the surest way to get sick – when you take in stuff that is not natural. All the preservatives and chemicals that are in today’s food and drinks are not good for the body. And that’s putting it lightly. Eventually, these "unnatural" chemicals take their toll on the body. And I’m not talking about simple colds or fever. I am talking about cancer and heart problems. So, I thought to myself, "I am in a profession that helps people get well from illnesses. Why not come up with something that will help prevent people from getting sick in the first place." And that’s when I thought of putting up a natural fruit juice stand that would offer pure extract from fruits. Because no one can argue that fruits are good for the body – that is, natural, fresh fruit.

What makes you different though? A lot of people are offering "natural fresh orange juice" or "100 percent pure fruit juice."

Sadly a lot of companies make that claim about their products. But if you look at the back of their packaging, there’s a lot of stuff in the ingredients list that you know are not natural. Such as artificial food coloring and preservatives. But if you go to Fruit Magic, you will see that the juice really comes from the actual fruit. And we don’t add anything else. What you get is simply the juice that is in the fruit. Nothing else. The fruit and nothing but the fruit!

Hey, that’s a good one! So you’re saying those other so-called fruit juice companies are pretty much like our politicians, huh? All talk but no substance – all mudslinging and nothing to show for?

Ha ha, I like the way you put it. Yes, you can say that.

So why do people still drink all those "unnatural" drinks?

Well, because they are cheaper. But in the long run, it won’t be cheaper because when you get sick from drinking all of those unnatural drinks, you will end up seeing your doctor. And that’s not a cheap thing, if you know what I mean. So while my drinks are priced a little higher than your usual drink in the market, in the long run it’s cheaper.

Moreover, if you check out the prices of fruits in the supermarket, you will realize that you are actually getting a good deal. For example, an apple in the supermarket is around P17. It takes five apples to produce one glass. If you do the math, five apples come up to P85. But our glass of apple juice is only around P70. So, really, you get your money’s worth.

Yup, that really sounds like a good deal.

Are you going to tell me now how a lawyer like you got into MTV?

Only if you give me another round of apple juice.

Deal.

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When I left Alan’s Fruit Magic stand, sipping my apple juice, I couldn’t help but think about my childhood dream of putting up a fresh fruit juice stand. I felt that maybe, I had let a dream slip by. But then again, Dr. Alan Escolona is helping all of us fulfill all our dreams – to live a long and healthy life. And that’s a nice comforting thought.

The Good Book says, "Any sound tree bears good fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit any more than a decayed tree can bear good fruit. You can tell a tree by its fruit." Doc Alan is certainly a good tree because he is bearing good fruit, literally.

And the great thing is, we’re all benefiting from it.

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Thanks for your letters! You may e-mail me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.