Purple Ocean Superfood Bar: açaí of relief amid holiday indulgence
I’ve been going to Purple Ocean Superfood Bar’s cute, shabby-chic trailer for more than a year now. And I’ve been meaning to introduce this fresh and fruity little love affair of mine to readers for months, but something’s always gummed up the works.
And last week, in between cheesesteaks, chocolate chip cookies and champagne cocktails (not merely alliterative amusement but literal), I desperately needed something to un-gum my own.
Purple Ocean’s menu isn’t long on foundation, but it’s ridiculously long in color, flavor and freshness. They offer a 1/4 u00e7aí and pitaya (dragon fruit) bowls in a small roster of varieties, each named after a different surf break along the coast of Puerto Rico’s Culebra Island, where owner Josiah Candelaria got his first taste of a 1/4 u00e7aí and fell hard in love.
“I come from an entrepreneurial family,” says Candelaria, 28, who moved to Florida from Puerto Rico when he was just a boy. “Superfood and health were already passions of mine, and Orlando had quite a shortfall of a 1/4 u00e7aí and healthy options, especially at that time, but we really had a vision of what we wanted our café to represent.”
The city’s been enjoying Candelaria’s three trailers ( at The Florida Mall, Mills 50 and Waterford Lakes) but will now see that café vision for themselves. Purple Ocean will go brick-and-mortar in mere weeks in Waterford Lakes. Two more locations — Mills 50 and another in the University of Central Florida student union — will follow later in the year.
My timing to write-up the food trucks was uncanny. As is their product.
Purple Ocean’s bowls are the cheesesteak’s polar opposite, chock full of antioxidants and artfully constructed. Brilliantly colorful live food: nutritious and refreshingly tart a 1/4 u00e7aí or pitaya, lightly sweetened — guarana syrup in the former, organic cane sugar in the latter — and surrounded by fresh fruits, flaky coconut and crunchy granola, along with other options. Agave or honey topping is available, too, but I’d steer clear. The bowls’ foundations are quite sweet on their own.
They’re bracing, beautiful and ample; each runs between $9-10. I get two servings out of one, as info. After a run on a hot day? Eh, maybe I could kill the whole thing. The Flamenco is my common pick, studded with berries, flaked with coconut and in the base of all the bowls, this mystery “cookie” I’ve finally learned is comprised of just two ingredients: granola and coconut oil.
“Sometimes it’s more like cookie chunks,” Candelaria explains. There’s special chemistry that happens, the cold of the other ingredients atop the mixture, that fuses the two elements into something extra special. And probably pretty caloric.
“But it’s a good fat,” Candelaria soothes.
And just about the only fat you’ll find at Purple Ocean. For now.
Brick and mortar will see a menu expansion: A range of vegan burgers are on the eatery’s horizon.
In the meantime, check them out for something cool and fresh. Something as colorful as your Christmas lights. Something that isn’t egg nog or gravy. And won’t turn your blood into it, either.
If you go
The Florida Mall trailer: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily; 8001 S. Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando (outside entrance of Foot Locker); 407-576-7860","type":"text
Waterford Lakes trailer: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily; 12789 Waterford Lakes Parkway in Orlando; 407-946-5361","type":"text
New Waterford Lakes store: Opens Jan. 2; 12789 Waterford Lakes Parkway in Orlando","type":"text
More info: purpleoceansfb.com","type":"text
Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s new Facebook Forum, Let’s Eat, Orlando.
Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s new Facebook Forum, Let’s Eat, Orlando.
