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Meet Hannah Olmstead of The Real Deal Juices

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Olmstead.

Hannah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I met my husband (who is from Colombia) in Argentina 10 years ago. We lived in Buenos Aires for a year and a half and then moved to Bogota, Colombia for another two years. From there, we moved to Denver, CO and have lived here for the last 6.5 years. My husband has always had a fruit problem…he LOVES fruit. In Colombia, you find fresh fruit markets everywhere and they have dozens and dozens of different types of fruit. He wanted to find a way to share all these amazing flavors with us here in the United States. So we started our first business, DisFruta Ltd. which is a distribution business. We import 100% natural fruit purees from Colombia and distribute to different bars, restaurants, ice cream stores and supermarkets here in the Denver Metro Area. We carry 16 different fruit flavors ranging from mango, blackberry, and strawberry to guanabana (soursop), passion fruit and lulo. With access to such a great product, we decided to venture out to a retail business and start a food truck. In 2015 we started The Real Deal Juices, a mobile food truck that offers 100% natural smoothies and Latin Food. We offer delicious tropical smoothies and food from all over Latin America, not just Colombia. We have pupusas from El Salvador, empanadas from Peru, arepas from Colombia and chile rellenos from Mexico. Our goal is to introduce people to food and flavors they may not have been exposed to before.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, we have experienced bumps throughout our journey. In the beginning, it was just finding events that we could go to. It took time to make contacts and build clientele. After that, it was figuring out what type of events we did best at. We learned that gatherings with families and younger people was when we performed the best so we sought out family-oriented events. Now with COVID, there are pretty much no public events, so we’ve had to innovate about finding new locations to set up at. We’ve been working with a lot of neighborhood HOA’s to bring our truck in to communities and give neighbors something new and different to look forward to in these ever-changing crazy times.

The Real Deal Juices – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a mobile food truck that offers 100% natural smoothies and Latin food. Some people think that it is an odd pairing, but if you have ever been down to Central or South America, it’s not weird at all. There are fresh juice and smoothie shops all over the place where you can also snack on an empanada or arepa. So in the Latin culture, it’s actually quite normal! Our most popular smoothie is called The Real Deal: mango, passion fruit and a little bit of ginger. It’s so refreshing on a hot summer day. Our most popular food dish are pupusas from El Salvador. They are a round corn pocket stuffed with homemade cheese and either chicken, pork, jalapenos, or black beans. We love that we introduce people to foods they may have never tried before. When people hear Latin food they automatically think Mexican food. I love Mexican food but there are so many other foods from Latin America that need to be showcased and served! We are proud that we can bring these new flavors to Denver.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success when everything is running relatively smoothly with little stress or chaos. It’s when the rewards of your work exceed the amount of effort you put in.

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Image Credit:
Felipe Barrera

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