How many oranges does it take to make a 52 ounce bottle of juice?
Hey, juice drinkers, gather together.We need to have a talk.I think you drink a lot of juice.I drink only the two juices that are 100% pure and natural every morning.They are all juice, man.They are never from concentrate.What is that?I don't know who the concentrate drinkers are, but I never pick them to be on my team.I am a pure, straight-from-the-orange juice man.
I don't even give them the time of day, the drinks that are 10% juice with the rest being water and various forms of fructose and other Additives are too much for me.
It is said that juice is a major component of who I am as much as your sister's coffee is to her.I start my day with a blend of juices.It is also good for me.It is me.
We tell ourselves lies so that we can sleep.I recently found out that I have been lying.Half a lie, which means half a truth, makes me half the man I thought I was.Gary, a friend of mine who lives on the Lower East Side, has been spreading conspiracy theories about how my beloved Tropicana juice wasn't just juice.I smiled at the reassuring image of the straw poking into an orange, and read the words " 100% pure Florida orange juice" as I had hundreds of times before, even though I didn't believe it.I said to myself, "Oh, Gary."
A few weeks later, a voice inside me said that Gary is often right in what he says, and that maybe I should look into it.I did.You can as well.It is all over the Internet.
Because oranges only grow in certain seasons, orange juice providers had to come up with a way of storing the juice if they weren't going to use the old school method of freezing juice.They came up with a process in which oranges are picked, squeezed, heated, and then the juice is kept in huge tanks in order to eliminate oxygen from the air.The juice can not be spoiled for more than a year.When the juice is ready to be packaged for consumption, flavor packets are added to give it a consistent, orangey taste.You and I know that orange juice is made from the same formulas used for perfumes.
The book Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice was published in 2009.Her scandalous tell-all seemed to have the potential to create a Juicegate, but the book didn't put much of a dent into the Big Juice Guys.They are hiding in plain sight because of the process delineated above.
The process explains why every carton tastes the same.It explains why the popular taste of different regions is different for Tropicana juice.It is also why Minute Maid's Pure Squeezed orange juice tastes different.Did you catch that?It is called pure squeezed, but it is not fresh squeezed.Have you ever wondered why a fresh squeezed glass of OJ tastes different from the pure orange juices?The process is stupid.
The juice industry is large.The company generated $6.2 billion in revenue last year.This is a lot of money.When D'Amore was interviewed by Businessweek earlier this month, he didn't hold back.The primary reason we are in business is to make money.I bet D'Amore smokes those packets at his desk and makes billions.
I inquired about the juice production of both Minute Maid and Tropicana, which are owned by Coke andPepsi.I got the runaround.They referred me to the Juice Products Association.They didn't get back to me after I asked my questions.
The Food and Drug Administration does not require adding flavor packs to the labeling of pasteurized juice because it is the orange, according to an industry spokesman.
The woman in California was so angry with the juice process that she filed a lawsuit against the company.The company remains committed to offering great-tasting 100 percent orange juice with no added sugars or preservatives.We are committed to full compliance with labeling laws and regulations and take the faith that consumers place in our products seriously.
I bet they are in compliance.The flavor packets are actually derived from the orange peel, so what they are doing is taking the flavor out, and then adding it back in later.It is just chemistry.Maybe that is not that bad.Maybe it is.I will never look at my juice in the same way.I thought it was juice.It is more of a drink.