Juice on Tap is serving fresh juice on campus
DYLAN BROCKMEYER
ASST. BUSINESS EDITOR
@dbrock08
Students line up to buy the Chicklo brothers’ fresh-squeezed, locally grown and produced juice.
Every Wednesday morning at about 11 a.m., the Chicklo brothers set up their fresh-squeezed juice tent, Juice on Tap, outside La Paloma and stay until they are sold out. Matt and Mike Chicklo, USD alumni with law degrees, created their own small business with the goal of selling a sustainable, healthy product that also brings the USD community together.
“The idea is that you buy a bottle and then each week you come back and fill it up from the tap.” Mike Chicklo said.
They currently have 10 different flavors and options of juice. All of their produce comes from local farms and all of their leftover pulp and refuse goes to the school’s compost garden.
The Chicklo brothers are very uniquely involved with the USD campus. They sell exclusively on campus at their normal Wednesday stand as well as catering at changemaker events.
“We also are going to start a bottle swap program like a Community Supported Agriculture,” Mike Chicklo said. “A local farm will deliver to you or you’ll set up a pickup destination. Instead of going to a grocery store you get it straight from a farm. We’re doing that same idea but with our juice.”
Juice on Tap also works with some of the students; the brothers prefer to say they work with their employees instead of the employees working for them.
“We are not just building a business with Juice on Tap,” Matt Chicklo said. “We are building a community of people who care about health and the environment.”
They operate by the slow money method of business, keeping every purchase and sale within the local San Diego and USD community. However, building up their small business has been a slow process.
“It’s a lot to set up,” Mike Chicklo said. “Not having an actual storefront which we sell the juice out of, it’s kind of a lot of work to come up here each Wednesday. We spend most of the time, honestly, preparing to come out here.”
The brothers would love to have a more permanent establishment on campus. Right now they’re working towards opening up their own storefront across the street in a shared space with Kona Kakes.
The impact Juice on Tap and its sustainable mission have on the students is prevalent.
Sophomore Sam Eller works with the Chicklo brothers and firmly believes in their work ethic.
“What we emphasize is multiple usage,” Eller said. “We’re almost providing more than a juice service, we’re kind of teaching people.”
Whether students are learning new methods of composting and sustainable practices or trying to cool down during these heat waves, Juice on Tap’s Mike and Matt Chicklo have a product and business model that has potential to appeal to many students.