Best juice with a difference

As with most trends, the popularity and suddenly commercial nature of juice bars has obscured the killer grassroots sources around town. So while there are plenty of places to go for an overpriced and under-inspired cup of strawberry-banana or mango-passion fruit, you might not know that the real action is going down in a ramshackle food court called Chinatown Eatery. Here, on the second floor behind a counter plastered with colored paper, and with lines stretching around the corner on weekends, lies Juice Bar. The name is simple, but the wares are astounding, original, and often complex. This is an Asian-style juice bar like one you'd find in Hanoi or Hong Kong, with shakes and juices made from watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberry, mango, green tea, taro . . . the list goes on and on. What separates this place from the commercial competition is the just-right degree of sweetness that makes these juices almost as good as a bite of fruit. And then there are the pearls. If you desire (and most people do), each drink can come garnished with marble-size black tapioca pearls. They look weird, and you need an oversize straw to suck them down, but they act as great flavor-carriers. And that means your already-better-than-normal fruit drink gets that much tastier.

Juice Bar, Chinatown Eatery, 44-46 Beach Street, Boston. (No phone.)