Just went to my favorite hippie store today–it’s been a long time. Erewhon, that natural-foods icon located near CBS on Beverly Boulevard, is the best place to go for natural foods and products, period. There have been a few imitators–good try all–but none live up to quality of Erewhon Natural Foods.

I’ve been going to hippie stores for as long as I can remember. I hail from the hippie capital of the world, you know–San Francisco. Anyway, I love the atmosphere at hippie stores and I love the natural products. They’re real natural products, not simply labeled as such like in some of the other fake hippie/yuppie stores that are popular right now. Back in the day–1970s-80s–you were a real freak if you shopped at hippie stores. Not anymore! It’s super-hip. But that’s cool–I think health is hip, too.

So something I really love about Erewhon is their juice bar. I usually like a big carrot juice with a shot of wheatgrass (my mom used to shove this stuff down our throats when my siblings and I were kids, but now I love it), but today I tried something new that I want to turn you all on to. Today I had a shot of wheatgrass juice with a shot of ginger juice and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Woowee! Was that ever the schwizzle! You have got to try it–it’ll knock your socks off.

Carrot juice is high in vitamin A (Beta carotene) and vitamin B. It’s high in minerals like calcium, copper, magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorous, chlorine, sulfur, and iron. It’s great for the eyes (great remedy for night blindness), the mucous membranes (think lining of nose, mouth, throat, digestive system, and eliminatory organs), the bones and the teeth.

Wheatgrass is high in chlorophyll, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. It is good for:

• improving the functions of the digestive system
• preventing cancer, diabetes and heart disease
• curing constipation
• detoxifying heavy metals from the bloodstream
• helping to make menopause more manageable
• promoting general wellbeing.

Ginger is known as a digestive aid, increasing the production of digestive fluids and saliva. Ginger helps relieve indigestion, gas pains, diarrhea, and stomach cramping. Ginger has also been known to treat nausea, reduce inflammation, increase blood circulation, improve respiratory function, promote sweating (to break fevers), and detoxify the body.

Cayenne pepper has digestive benefits, circulatory benefits, and is used as a topical analgesic in many sports creams (it contains capsaicin–the chemical that causes heat). So all three together in a drink is…Booyah! Good stuff.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of checking out Erewhon, please do. As far as hippie stores go, it’s one of the best.