Whole Foods in Dublin, OH, sells fresh raw juice in various fruit and vegetable blends with cute names. Our winter fav is Lemon Zip. Anytime we feel a cold coming on we drink some Lemon Zip in the morning and our throat feels better throughout the day. It’s spicy, tart, sweet – and quite expensive. One 16oz bottle is $7! We’ve got a juicer, why not make some ourselves?

Whole Foods is wonderful at disclosing ingredients in their foods, but they won’t tell you the proportions. So after much trial and error, here’s what we got. A warning – if you drink this right away – it’s SPICY (but good). After a day in the fridge, the heat reduces quite a bit. That spicy chemical in peppers (called capsaicin) is proven to be natural anti-inflammatory (among other amazing properties). Great for sore throats and painful sinus pressure.

Throw the following items in order in your juicer set on high:

2oz whole ginger
~1oz Jalepeno (usually 1 whole jalepeno, stem removed)
1lb lemon (peeled, quartered – about 4 large lemons)
2lb green grapes (removed from stem)
6 cups cold filtered water

Store in a covered pitcher in the fridge. This is raw and fresh – so it may last only a week. Makes approx 64oz of Lemon Zip for roughly $9. At Whole Foods, the same amount would cost you $28!