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Freshly Squeezed: The Truth About Orange Juice in Boxes
- umlautae 8y agoI have started a list of places to get truly fresh orange juice on Yelp. Feel free to extend and promote: https://www.yelp.co.uk/collection/jC_xHurGIGp3fFc9atcF2Q?utm_content=Collections&utm_source=ishare https://www.yelp.co.uk/collection/jC_xHurGIGp3fFc9atcF2Q?utm...
- WiseWeasel 8y ago(2009), and doesn’t seem to differentiate flash-pasteurized options like Odwalla and Costco’s brand, which have a taste much closer to fresh-squeezed. I’m guessing those products omit the deoxygenation and flavor enhancement described.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoThere is also high pressure pasteurization too for juices now.
- zenexer 8y agoI have very little idea what I'm talking about here, but would that really be possible? Even if you import oranges, there are still going to be times when oranges aren't in season anywhere, I would think. The oranges and/or orange juice have to be preserved one way or another so they can be stored.
- throwaway415415 8y agoDidn’t someone died drinking odwalla because of exactly this?
- rsync 8y ago"Following the E.coli outbreak, an outbreak that was caused by Odwalla not following proper sanitary procedures that caused the death of at least one child, Odwalla adopted flash pasteurization and other sanitization procedures." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odwalla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odwalla
- tfolbrecht 8y agoI'm fortunate to live by local Florida orange growers. Nothing like juice made from Valencia Oranges. The economics of Oranges and juice are fascinating. In Florida, we had a major outbreak of citrus canker that made most of the oranges grown here unsuitable for sale by USDA standards (still safe for consumption). So, off to the juice factory to be stored in those massive vats.
- HillaryBriss 8y agointeresting. in SoCal there are a lot of urban citrus trees growing amongst the houses and apartments, including Valencia oranges. most of the time, the oranges are a bit on the tart side, but there are some sweet ones here and there. IDK what makes the difference. maybe sun exposure on the tree, or more cold weather in a given year. in any case, i'm surprised at how many go to waste. ... which leads to my question: what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? i heard it had destroyed a lot of trees. have they found a good way to combat that?
- 01100011 8y agoSweet citrus needs heat. You can grow sweeter fruit farther from the coast. If you're near the coast, plant it in an area that collects heat. Citrus needs a lot of fertilizer. I finally did the calculations one year and I was astounded at how much nitrogen I needed to apply. Once I did, I got amazing yields. Micronutrients are important too, but man, that nitrogen. In socal, stick to an acidifying source like ammonium sulfate or cottonseed hulls.
- pvaldes 8y agoSome Citrus are much hardier than another. Tangerines, the fruit that gave its sweetness to oranges are much hardier (orange is an hybrid, it does not exist in nature). Grapefruits suffer even more with cold than oranges
- pvaldes 8y ago> what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? Globalisation happened. People basically does not care about it, but new plant diseases are a big problem for the economy of a country.
- amelius 8y agoOfftopic. I recently bought a juicer. But turns out that after drinking one glass of fresh orange juice, my face turns pale, and I start sweating. It's nothing serious (I hope), but curious if anyone can recognize/explain this phenomenon? I have no such effect when eating large amounts of sugar. And I have no known allergies (recently tested in the hospital for another issue).
- scrollaway 8y ago… did you ask a doctor about this? You should be asking a doctor about this. Not people like me, who'll tell you this sounds like a potential vitamin overdose or something.
- amelius 8y agoYes, thanks, I'm aware of the perils of internet medical advice; I just wanted to be a little more informed before I visit my doc again!
- Y-bar 8y agoPossibly stupid question: Did you thoroughly clean and wash the juicer first? Might have been some residue from manufacturing.
- foreigner 8y agoRestaurants always advertise "Freshly Squeezed" orange juice on their menus, but that's become meaningless. I like to ask the waitstaff "Was your orange juice squeezed here, on the premises?". If the answer is "no" I usually order something else.
- wolfi1 8y agoalso not to forget the insecticide residues on the oranges themselves
- rhizome 8y agoLook into oral-allergy syndrome. When I've experienced it, it has only meant that I hadn't had X (oranges, celery, etc.) in a long time and it would dissipate as I ate more X.
- snarfy 8y agoNavel oranges are the worst orange. It's sad how much they've taken over the market. A tire fire tastes better. I've known people that have never tasted anything but a navel and think that's what oranges are supposed to taste like.
- edoo 8y agoJuiced fruits should be considered the same as full sugar soda and self regulated as such.
- ZeroFries 8y agoExcept fruit juice has health benefits soda doesn't have. Fruit > juice > soda, and the gap between juice and soda is probably as high or higher than fruit and juice. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045306/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045306/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100330151949.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100330151949.h... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3519311/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3519311/
- your-nanny 8y agothe response citing research supporting an unpopular opinion gets voted down while the post expressing the popular opinion that doesn't cite evidence gets voted up. hn voting isn't working. pretty typical
- windsurfer 8y agoThose sample sizes and selection are not very good. 22 volunteers in one, and 30 people in a narrow age range in the other.
- edoo 8y agoThe problem is the sugar load. No amount of nutritional value can justify it. You can get those nutrients elsewhere without the insulin response.
- throwaway415415 8y agoI hear that a lot in the US (never elsewhere), but the only people in bad shape are those who abuse fat food and sodas. I’ve never seen anyone obese from drinking too much fruit juice alone.
- dawnerd 8y agoI grew up on a small orange farm in SoCal and have never heard of a Californian saying Florida oranges were better. We could get almost year round oranges locally so I’m not really sure why the author would inject that Californians would say Florida is better. We also grew navels and valencias. The navels were amazing for fresh juice if you drink it right away. If you really want to treat yourself, go find some Ojai pixies. So delish.
- Aloha 8y agoFresh oranges are good no matter where they are grown. I too grew up in SoCal and remember eating backyard grown oranges as a kid - nothing is better than a fresh orange, I dont bother with boxed juice most of the time, I'd rather eat the fruit.
- cubano 8y agoBeing a east central Florida native, I grew up picking Valencia's off neighborhood trees, before the terrible canker in the 90's forced the state agriculture office to basically bulldoze and burn every non-commercial orange tree in the state. IMO, the real treat is fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, not orange. Fresh grapefruit juice tastes nothing whatsoever like the stuff they sell in markets, and has a sublime flavor that's both refreshing and delicious.
- intrasight 8y agoI agree about grapefruit juice. I stopped drinking orange juice years ago but do occasionally drink grapefruit juice.
- degenerate 8y agoSeconding a fresh Florida-grown grapefruit. I used to pick them a lot as a kid. It's rare to find someone with a residential grapefruit tree in FL now.
- novia 8y ago>before the terrible canker in the 90's forced the state agriculture office to basically bulldoze and burn every non-commercial orange tree in the state. Could you elaborate more on this, or link me to a place where I can read more about it?
- jzl 8y agoWas curious about this too. A minute after some quick googling: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article76614477.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article76614477.html
- novia 8y ago"Citrus canker was first found in the United States in 1910 not far from the Georgia – Florida border. Subsequently, canker was discovered in 1912 in Dade County, more than 400 mi (600 km) away. Beyond Florida, the disease was discovered in the Gulf states and reached as far north as South Carolina. It took more than 20 years to eradicate that outbreak of citrus canker, from 1913 through 1931, $2.5 million in state and private funds were spent to control it—a sum equivalent to $28 million in 2000 dollars.[11] In 26 counties, some 257,745 grove trees and 3,093,110 nursery trees were destroyed by burning. Citrus canker was detected again on the Gulf Coast of Florida in 1986 and declared eradicated in 1994. The most recent outbreak of citrus canker was discovered in Miami, Dade County, Florida, on Sept. 28, 1995, by Louis Willio Francillon, a Florida Department of Agriculture agronomist. Despite eradication attempts, by late 2005, the disease had been detected in many places distant from the original discovery, for example, in Orange Park, 315 miles (500 km) away. In January 2000, the Florida Department of Agriculture adopted a policy of removing all infected trees and all citrus trees within a 1900-ft radius of an infected tree in both residential areas and commercial groves. Previous to this eradication policy, the department eradicated all citrus trees within 125 ft of an infected one. The program ended in January 2006 following a statement from the USDA that eradication was not feasible" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_canker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_canker
- evo_9 8y agoIt's interesting the degree to which people will defend their fruit juice drinking in this thread. I wonder if it's a mild form of addiction. I used to drink a lot of OJ when I was still under the illusion it was healthy to do so. Simply stopping that I lost about 15 pounds without changing anything else. It was tough at first, I really craved it and it was a daily habit. It's turned out to be the biggest health improvement I've made in recent years.
- hnnh44 8y agoSugar is absolutely addictive. And juice is just sugar. Whole fruits are healthy because of the fibers and nutrients in the pulp+skin. The fiber slows absorption and helps with insulin spikes. Even "fresh juicing", which is crazy popular, isn't the same as just eating the fruit.
- sjwright 8y agoIt’s not “just sugar.” It’s mostly fructose, the worst sugar, known to stress the liver like alcohol. And unlike most other calories it does a poor job of triggering satiation. Fruit juice is evil.
- copperx 8y agoSo, even eating spoonfuls of sugar is better than drinking OJ?
- sjwright 8y agoProbably about the same but at least the spoonfuls of pure table sugar (sucrose) don’t come with pretensions of healthfulness. And without the huge quantities of citric acid, the table sugar is less hyper-palatable. The associated acids make fruit juices almost perfectly engineered to maximize consumption. (The recipe is so perfect that Coca-cola uses surprisingly similar ratios.)
- sjwright 8y agoTo expand on my post, I should add: Fruit is evil. The fruits we buy in the supermarket (or hipster organic farmers market) bare little resemblance to the less sweet and less palatable fruits that humans would have eaten prior to cultivation. Through an ongoing process (over multiple millennia) of artificially selecting for higher sugar content, we have turned nature’s fruits into the equivalent of candy bars. If you want nutrients, eat vegetables.
- projektfu 8y agoIf you can get your hands on a pineapple orange, they are truly Florida’s finest IMHO. Also they were synonymous with juice oranges in earlier times before they switched to Valencia oranges. Unfortunately the trees are very susceptible to disease, or so I hear.
- ValentineC 8y agoProbably still rings true in 2019, but I think it should have a (2009) tag behind the title.
- NoblePublius 8y agoThe real story here is not that Tropicana is chemically adulterated fruit-derived sugar water produced and stored at industrial scale. The real story is that the USDA lets PepsiCo call this product “juice” even though it’s nutritionally indistinguishable from Coca Cola.
- gok 8y agoThat is true of basically any definition of juice.
- p1necone 8y agoEven freshly squeezed orange juice with no additives is almost nutritionally indistinguishable from Coca Cola.
- thaumasiotes 8y agoIn Shanghai, I found a vending machine offering fresh-squeezed orange juice. The front of the machine was a window, so after buying a juice you could watch as a few oranges were rolled into a press and crushed. Then you got a sealed cup with the juice in it. The juice had barely any orange flavor at all. I concluded that fresh-squeezed orange juice is overwhelmingly just water. This suggests that it is in fact distinguishable from Coca Cola.
- massivecali 8y agoTrader Joes used to have 2 machines in the late 80s which were Fresh Peanut Butter and Orange Juice. Both machines ground the ingredients fresh on demand. Peanut butter went into little tupperware like containers. OJ went into jugs. It seems all current commenters who might frequent TJs are too young to have experienced these things. The biting tart flavor of fresh squeezed OJ is often what is attempted to be imitated by homestyle or tart labels. Trader joes non pasteurized is still not the same flavor.
- atombender 8y ago
- pvaldes 8y ago> But Navels have a lackluster flavor compared to the Valencia I disagree with that. Valencia was a good old variety from the 'blancas' group of oranges, but is not the best variety. There are even better Valencia oranges (the newer "Valencia seedless " delta and midnight varieties for example). And many navels score higher for taste also than Valencia.
- oska 8y agoYes, where I'm from (Australia) navel oranges are considered the premium eating orange.
- fma 8y agoI grew up in the US, but my wife, inlaws did not. I have a daughter, who is only 2. Sams Club started offering juicing at the store last year. You see them fill up a machine w/ oranges and it cuts, grinds, and does whatever...and out comes fresh juice. Maybe me having grown up on American sugary substance, my palate has gotten worse. But my wife, inlaws definitely prefer the fresh one when I do a blind taste test. Me...I'm just like meh, no difference, just get me the box one (which is like 1/3rd the cost). My 2 year old...that's the only one she'd drink. She did not touch the box juice before, and I was surprised she liked the fresh one, and asked for more.
- ardy42 8y ago> Maybe me having grown up on American sugary substance, my palate has gotten worse. But my wife, inlaws definitely prefer the fresh one when I do a blind taste test. Me...I'm just like meh, no difference, just get me the box one (which is like 1/3rd the cost). I'm an American and I can definitely taste the difference between box juice and fresh-squeezed juice. I think the former still had the "base" flavors; but the latter definitely has a more complicated and pleasant taste, with more "nasal" flavors are totally absent from box juice.
- vanderZwan 8y ago> Maybe me having grown up on American sugary substance, my palate has gotten worse. Serious question: how is your sense of smell?
- fma 8y agoMy smell is pretty good. Taste...meh. Example: Things that my wife feel is salty, like can soup, I don't give a second thought to.
- vanderZwan 8y agoHmm, well that's quite interesting then, because the ability to notice nuanced flavours should have more to do with the smell of food than whether the taste buds are desensitized or not. If your sense of smell is still good, it is very likely that you do taste all of these things, and the problem is more one of attention. The simple thing to do is to train that. Simply eating more slowly and trying to focus on what you smell when chewing should already make the flavours noticeable to the brain. It is easier if your nose does not have to "compete for attention" with the other senses, so closing your eyes will help, as will being in a noise-free environment. As for the taste, if you don't notice salty soup your taste buds are indeed likely t obe desensitized. But even if you "grew up" on food too rich in salt and sugar, that not a permanent thing. You could try a kind of "taste detoxing" month - reducing salt/sugar intake to essentials for a while by setting strict rules to what kinds of sugars are allowed. It's hard for various reasons, but it works - WheezyWaiter made a very entertaining and IMO "neutral" video showing his experience trying it[0]. So you should be able to address both if you want. I recommend it! In general, getting in touch with one's senses is an enriching and fun experience (not just for tasting food). [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtslkL5nUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtslkL5nUA
- agumonkey 8y agois the industrial food era about to fade ?
- x15 8y agoIf you haven't tried fresh carrot juice, you don't know what you're missing. I got myself this cheap machine for that purpose: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mean+juice+machine&t=chromeos&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.bidorbuy.co.za%2Fuser_images%2F727%2F1116727%2F1116727_130421213643_IMG_4197.jpg https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mean+juice+machine&t=chromeos&iax=...
- everybodyknows 8y agoGood advice, as far as it goes: >try something new for breakfast: a whole Florida Valencia orange ... Usual way to do this is to slice into wedges and bite against the inside of the peel, leaving much of the pulp attached. An easier, less wasteful way: Using a sharp, heavy knife, slice patches off both stem and blossom ends, down to the pulp. Halve along the equator and lay equator-side down on a cutting board. Now "shave" off patches of the peel with short downward strokes, rotating the orange half frequently to maintain an easy cutting angle. Finish by cutting into bite-size pieces, and grab yourself a fork. Squeeze a fresh Key lime over the top, for extra flavor complexity.