What Makes Joe & The Juice's Popular Tuna Sandwich Unique

Every household should keep a can of tuna around for emergencies. This shelf stable, delicious, and nutritious food can make light work of answering the dreaded question, "what's for dinner?" And one of the best ways to make a quick meal out of this tinned fish is to have it on a tuna sandwich.

Smithsonian Magazine says that the classic tuna salad sandwich actually came from an effort to limit food waste. In the 19th century, it was common practice to combine leftover meat with mayo and other ingredients to make a salad. It then started popping up in restaurants and soon became a common dish, with the introduction of precooked, canned tuna made whipping a salad together even easier. According to The National Fisheries Institute, almost a quarter of Americans have canned tuna at least once a week and about 40% consume it at least twice a month.

It makes sense then that the fast casual, health conscious sandwich shop Joe & The Juice would have its own take on the classic tuna sandwich. This unique sandwich has developed a cult following though, and for good reason.

The Tunacado sandwich is so simple that even if you don't have a nearby Joe & the Juice location, you'll likely be able to make one at home. According to the Joe & the Juice menu, the popular Tunacado sandwich consists of Joe's classic bread, vegan pesto, tomatoes, tuna, and the eponymous avocado. Joe & the Juice also shared an assembly video over on its TikTok page for those who want to see how it comes together.

One of the qualities about this sandwich that stands out is the bread. Joe & the Juice uses a remarkably thin bread with an almost english-muffin-like interior that is full of nooks and crannies. The classic tuna melt sandwich usually calls for bread that is at least an inch thick, but the Tunacado stands out by holding up between two pieces that appear remarkably thin. The bread is also well toasted meaning you won't have a soggy Pan Bagnat situation on your hands.

Joe & the Juice is a chain of fast casual cafes that originally began in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first location was opened by Kaspar Basse in 2002 with the mission of making "healthy food sexy."

Its menu has a variety of sandwiches, and a recently added açaí breakfast bowl. The real star's of the show though are the wide variety of smoothies, teas, power shakes, coffees, and even wellness minded ginger and turmeric shots. Wellness without sacrificing taste is a huge part of the brand's identity. It was immensely important to Basse, who was a member of Denmark's national karate team, that health and wellness always be a part of the company. The Tunacado sandwich, of course, fits right in with this mission as it adds healthy fats from avocado, antioxidant rich tomatoes, and the lean protein loaded tuna into a beautiful package (via Very Well Fit).

Joe & The Juice has hundreds of locations across the globe now with many of its U.S. locations clustered in large cities like New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles.

The Tunacado has recently seen a spike of interest on TikTok. It seems to be spurred on by user dzaslavsky, who has posted several videos of herself enjoying the sandwich. There are also similar videos that attribute dzaslavsky as their inspiration. Joe & The Juice even featured her in a video with a headline reading, "When the Tunacado finally gets the attention it deserves."

The Tunacado is by no means a new menu item though. It's been a favorite menu item for customers like Laura from The Copenhagen Tales since at least 2015. TripAdvisor user BigcLondon also declared themselves a "Tunacado Addict" back in 2014. Google Trends data also shows that interest in this signature sandwich goes as far back as 2004, and has actually waned in recent years according to its metrics. 

Still, it appears that this simple and humble sandwich's loyal following is about to increase even further as more people discover its tasty charms.