A Better Way to Get Juiced

Lalani Amin makes juice. Lots of juice.
Fresh juice from Louisiana-grown sugarcane mixed with fresh-squeezed
lime and kiwi, a cold, green kiss of a juice that tastes just sweet
enough to be a treat instead of a health drink (though it is). Amin
also makes falooda, a traditional Indian dessert that’s a
sort of milkshake mixed with ice cream, vermicelli noodles and
tapioca seeds. He makes snow cones called gola that combine
shredded ice with a combination of sweet and sour flavorings like
rose syrup and tamarind. And there’s kulfi, another
traditional Indian dessert, similar to gelato, made of dense milk and
add-ins that might include pistachios, avocado, cardamom and saffron.

You’ll find Amin behind his Agha
Juice counter at the back of the Tajmahal grocery in Richardson, a
place we’ve
spent considerable time exploring recently. Amin
started making juice in Carrollton a few years ago and Agha Juice is
his first try at starting a franchise.

We tried many of his juice, milk,
yogurt and coffee-based concoctions during a visit to the counter
last week. Highly recommend the coconut water, served chilled and
fresh right in the coconut. Loved the “V5,” an Indian take on V-8
juice made of fresh apple, carrot, pomegranate, ginger and beets. A
16-oz. cup costs $4.50. That’s about the most anything costs at
Agha Juice. You can get small-sized servings of most items for only
$1.50.

“Try this. It will clear up your
sinuses,” said Amin, handing over a tall plastic cup of something
bright green and sweet/sour with a definite kick of peppery heat
behind it. We drank it down and breathed through both nostrils the
rest of the day.