Arden’s Garden, the Atlanta-born brand known for its juices and plant-based snacks, is marking its 30th year. The milestone is rooted in the vision of its late founder, Arden Zinn.
Her fascination with healthy ingredients took shape in the late 1960s, when she experimented each morning in the kitchen, mixing up what Arden called “concoctions” for the family, recalled daughter Leslie Zinn, now the company’s president and CEO.
A daily blend could be raw eggs, wheat germ, lecithin or whatever new super ingredient Arden was exploring.
“My mom, all my life, was this huge health nut,” Zinn said. “She was blending up whatever she was into at the moment, and that would be our breakfast. Honestly, I look back now as a mom, and I’m in awe that she got us to drink it.”
Zinn, a mom herself, is carrying the torch, guiding Arden’s Garden with the same curiosity and passion sparked by her mother decades ago.
Her mother’s homemade enthusiasm has grown into a brand of 19 retail stores, two manufacturing plants in East Point, and a widespread presence of partners across the Southeast who sell Arden’s Garden products.
Zinn said the brand itself helps educate people on better health.
Arden died in November 2020, but her fingerprint is on every part of the company’s mission, Zinn said. Part of that legacy is a commitment to the communities Arden’s Garden serves — making the brand accessible in food-insecure neighborhoods and establishing apprenticeship programs that mentor youth and teach work skills.
“I feel like it’s teaching people,” she said of the company’s mission. “When people don’t know the right things to put in their bodies, how do we reach them where they are, and bring them along?”
A life rooted in wellness
Arden and her family moved from New York to Atlanta in 1965 when her husband, Ben Zinn, accepted a position as a professor of aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech.
Before the juice brand, Arden Zinn had already built a reputation as a fitness expert. She opened her first exercise studio in 1971. Over the next decade, she expanded into multiple studios across Atlanta, North Carolina and Florida.
She left the business when her partner took over the studios in 1985, pivoting to appearances on CNN and serving as a stretch coach for the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
But even during her fitness career, Arden never lost her early interest in healthy eating. In 1993, she purchased a Norwalk cold-pressed juicer — something she had wanted for 30 years — and began making juices for friends and family.
From slow juicing to a business
For a while, Arden operated out of the back of a neighborhood health food store, bottling juice in mason jars, her daughter said.
But Arden was determined and had two ideas that helped move the business forward.
“She decided to go to hair salons…” Zinn said. Stylists and their customers were drawn to the juices, creating steady demand.
That demand made it possible to open Arden’s Garden’s first retail location in 1995 at 10th Street and Monroe Drive, inside a former Little Caesars Pizza space.
Arden also approached the manager at the nearby Kroger at Ansley Mall, who agreed to sell her juices. It was the busiest Kroger in Atlanta, Zinn said.
Sales increased immediately.
Growth fueled by community
As the company grew, the Zinns rented a location at 14th and Howell Mill — their first manufacturing plant.
“That decision turned out to be so fortuitous,” Zinn said. “It kept us really close to our customers [at the Monroe Drive location]. That’s so key [in knowing] what trends are coming, what people are asking for, what things are on their way out.”
She continued, “When we need to bring out a new product, we just have to take it to our stores and get immediate feedback. It’s been amazing to be so close to our customers on a daily basis.”
In 2003, the company purchased a plant facility on Main Street in East Point. They had not intended for it to be a retail location, but residents kept knocking on the door asking to buy juice.
“There was no sign outside,” Zinn said. Team members would run to the cooler, grab juices and drop cash into a cookie tin. After about 18 months, they realized they needed to turn it into a full store. Today, out of 19 locations, that East Point store is the company’s top performer, Zinn said.
“What that taught us is that people in food deserts need access to fresh food, and if you can give them access, they will come and support you,” she said.
Arden’s Garden has intentionally opened several of its stores in food-insecure areas, including locations in Sandtown on Campbellton Road, on Old National Highway, Cascade Road, and Boulevard.
Continuing the legacy
Arden’s Garden recently discontinued several long-standing juices, such as “Sunrise” and “Oops!” replacing them with such juices as “Cruciferous Cabbage Smoothie,” made with red cabbage, bananas, strawberries, lemon juice and flax seeds. It’s inspired by Zinn’s own research.
“I started reading on how to reverse autoimmune disease with nutrition,” she said. “If you follow any plant-based doctor, cruciferous vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet… They are anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-aging.”
Another new product, FOCUS+, is designed for brain support and includes mushrooms, Ashwagandha and green tea.
The company also offered three different Thanksgiving desserts through an online pre-order window which has now closed — A vegan chocolate mouse cake, sweet potato pie and an apple crumble tart.
“About 98% of what we make is functional,” Zinn said, adding that her team works to make the juices and snacks great tasting.
Reflecting on how today’s business is rooted in her mother’s drive and passion for health, Zinn said, “She was really well-known in Atlanta, and I have enormous respect for her. She was able to reinvent herself.”
Zinn says she’s continuing her mother’s legacy, one thoughtful concoction at a time.
