Rripe is a drive by juice bar on Marine Drive right next to Carlwil Place. It’s got okay juices at decent prices, though the bar itself leaves something to be desired.
The Juices
I was pretty thirsty when I got there and was pleasantly surprised as to how cheap their juice is. Almost every juice is Rs. 100, and comes in a fairly big cup. However, they only serve whatever fruit is in season. I couldn’t grab their famous TJC Mango juice and had to settle with a choice of Rambutan (meh), Starfruit (meh) and Tamarind (Groovy).
I suppose the advantage of Rripe is that the produce is grown locally and probably doesn’t have a truckload of chemicals waiting to kill you. For the sake of the review I slurped up two of the three choices- star fruit and tamarind.
The Tamarind was all right. It had a small quantity of sugar and as a result had a strong bite of thick tamarind flavour, which I liked. It was mildly cold however, and not as cool as I would have liked it. Quantity wise it packed a punch. There was a nice satisfying crunch from the dash of coarse sugar which was pleasant enough.
The star fruit is a shooting star – burning up in the stratosphere. This wasn’t as okay as the tamarind. It was wrong on many levels – It was thin and beyond sour for a supposedly ripe star fruit. To be fair, they did ask if I wanted sugar with the star fruit and I declined, but this had the biting dry sourness of fruit a deal of time away from being ripe.
My opinion is to head there when it’s the season and get their TJC Mango juice which we’ve heard a bit about.
Service & Ambiance
A team of three run the place. They’re friendly and okay, but don’t tell you what’s available until you go and place your order for the unavailable. There should honestly be a stool or two to sit down somewhere too. Though Rripe caters to the drive-by and stride-by crowds of an urban wilderness it would be nice to sit and relax, rather than to stand facing away from screeching trishaws a few feet behind you while you awkwardly sip your drink.
Cleanliness and Ambiance is a bit of a twist. The straws, and cups all come from lidded containers, but the inside of the bar itself is dark- its walls are dirty, which does little to support the experience.
Location
Firstly, finding this place was like trekking around Greece looking for the Golden Fleece! That’s probably because there was a lot of construction on the road blocking the view of the Marine Drive’s ubiquitous cafes, bars and restaurants. I, much like the brave Argonauts of yore journeyed to the barbaric lands of Colombo 3 only to be buffeted by sea spray, and get trapped in the serpentine lock of aching traffic. So to make matters easy, heed my warning! Trek not by foot but go by vehicle to Carlwil Place. There lies your prize between Carlwil and the Marine Drive Cargill’s.
Conclusion
From what I’ve read, Rripe was great in 2014. Now though it’s a bit of meh place, which is a shame. However, with that quantity at that price you’ve got more bang for your buck.
