Lite/Dark Juice/Chocolate

The name reads like an art-house film, and at first glance its meaning is similarly ambiguous. Venture inside, though, and you’ll discover a minimalist bar where fruit and cocoa go hand in hand.

LITE/DARK has taken over what used to be a dated travel agency, and transformed the interior into a slick, modern space. Using the slogan '100% Energy and 100% Temptation', there’s something very Garden of Eden about the oversized black and white photos on the bare brick walls featuring beautiful fruit-eating women.

For a juice bar that has obviously invested in its appearance and brand identity, the drinks’ names aren't very tempting. Yellow-LITE-0030 and Red-LITE-0100 sound more like paint samples than freshly prepared beverages. Thankfully, the juices' contents are much, er, fruitier.

Red-LITE-0100 is crammed with apple, pineapple, banana, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, goji and raspberries, cool coconut milk, bee pollen, maca (a plant that grows in the Andes) and spirulina algae, and can perform minor miracles if LITE/DARK’s website is to be believed: ‘perfect against hangovers, after sex or on a trip to Mars.’

None of those situations applied to me at the time, so I can't vouch for any restorative or interplanetary powers, but it was a fine juice.

Juices (available in 330ml, 500ml and 1 litre sizes) can be 'upgraded' with dark chocolate chips, or skip fruit altogether and go for a shot of hot chocolate infused with red chilli pepper or ginger. LITE/DARK also serves 'fruit bonbons', pieces of fruit dipped in dark chocolate, and for a sugar rush that goes on and on, there's a 24cm chocolate and fruit pizza.

LITE/DARK uses organic and fair-trade products whenever possible and delivers juice orders with an electric car. Juices are currently served in plastic bottles, a regulatory requirement laid down by the City of Amsterdam that LITE/DARK says it is looking to solve.