A woman saunters into her favorite watering hole and requests her preferred libation. Something that will take the edge off the worries of the day, something that will pick her up. "You want that straight up, or on the rocks?" the man behind the bar asks. "Straight" she replies. And with that, he crams some carrots and a little powdered bark into a juicemaster and makes her drink. Just another night at San Francisco's Whole Foods, where trendy grocery shoppers can imbibe new age elixirs while they cruise the aisles in search of tofu.

The megasized, turbo-charged juice machine does not possess the cool, James Bondian allure of a martini shaker. It does a much different job than say, your garden variety swizzle stick. The concoctions it fashions -- nonalcoholic fruit, vegetable, and herb blends -- are perhaps not the direct descendants of the Harvey Wallbanger. But make no mistake -- that the juicer and the juice bar are at the forefront of drinking trends in the nineties is no pulp fiction. Juice blends may be the morning-after answer to the cocktail nation revival of cigars and highballs. Or, they're an evening libation that packs more wallop than your average wine spritzer, while offering the added bonus of a sense of virtue.

As with other, earlier herbal essenced trends, the juice phenomenon began on the west coast. Overnight it seemed the "I could have had a V-8" smack on the forehead was replaced with an "I could have had a bee-pollen-spirulina-wheat grass-ginseng-orange-carrot tonic!" And why not? For the Californian on the go, it was and is easier to gulp down a pulverized beverage than to gnaw on a couple of carrots and celery sticks, and there's an exotic cachet to the experience. Clearly, juice was no longer just for infants and those who'd lost their teeth.

Three years ago, the only liquids of note in Boston were clam chowder and Sam Adams. Now, Boston Magazine goes so far as to award a best Juice/Smoothies accolade in its annual "Best Of..." issue. The current winner, South End Naturals, is doing such a bang up business they're opening up two more locations in the city. (Isn't this how Starbucks got started?) The drinks here have names that rival "Sex on the Beach" and "Fuzzy Navel" -- how about a "Whammy" or a "Whip It"? And like a regular bar, South End even has a happy hour when drinks are half price. This being juice, however, happy hour takes place early in the morning.

Anyone who was around and drinking in the eighties probably remembers that for a while, alcohol didn't feel very...alcoholic. Wine coolers and fruity cocktails might have gone down easy on the yuppie throat, but they didn't offer must more gustatory payoff than a swig of Kool-Aid. With a shot of wheat grass juice, however, you know you've had something. Thick, pungent, and unmistakably lawn-like, this cleansing detoxer won't get you drunk, but it will produce a shudder and a yen for a chaser.

Juices, like alcohol, also can bring on an altered state. One recent customer at South End Naturals, a hung-over heavy smoker, passed out cold in the middle of the shop from the intense, purifying effects of a large shot of wheat grass juice. Drinking a fresh-fruit blend infused with kava kava, a bark from the south pacific that supposedly works as a destresser, one notices an instant numbing effect in the mouth. And male customers at South End Naturals regularly ask for additional shots of ginseng and, particularly, yohimbe, which are reputed to enhance, um, potency. Unfortunately, the effects of all these are not Popeye-quality -- the man who gulps down a little yohimbe in his fruit juice won't instantly be transformed into Casanova, and an ounce of wheat grass juice won't undo a couch potato lifestyle. But juice is undeniably kinder to the system than say, Wild Turkey, and it's not as fattening as a double mocha with whipped cream. The buzz may be a little different, but that's part of the appeal. A little kava kava and bee pollen might just take you where no tequila shooter ever has. If nothing else, as mom used to say, it couldn't hurt.

Happy Together

• One 12-ounce serving
• 4 medium carrots
• 1 apple
• 1/2 pear - whole pear

Remove tops from carrots, core apple and pear. Blend in juicer (DO NOT use a conventional blender, carrots are too hard for its blades). Serve and drink immediately.

South End Naturals: 517 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA (617) 536-2119