The Trouble With Orange Juice – Part III

This is the third in a series of articles on Citrus.

In parts I and II, I introduced the (reverse than you thought:synonym) idea that fresh squeezing is likely a poor choice and the sad truth that commercial Orange Juice is a Frankenstein’s monster of dis- and re-assembled chemicals obtained from oranges. So! What is a person to do with this bleak landscape? Let me be a guide; I will show you my path.

The Real Fix: Know Your OJ

There are another group of commercial orange juices on the market that may seem to be the solution to the Orange Juice Problem: Premium-priced, Actual-squeezed juice products. You’ll know that these are actually fresh-squeezed because the sell-by-date ((not the ‘expiration date,’ please for the love of all that is Tiki, stop calling it that!)) will be in a matter of days rather than months. The main producers (on the West Coast of the US) are Odwalla and Naked Juice. Odwalla is a Bay-area company that produces fresh juices and ‘cocktails’ sold in your local Gourmet Groceries. They were purchased by the Coca Cola company in the past decade. Naked Juice, their chief competitor peddles a similar catalog of juice products, usually is found in an end-cap a few aisles over, and was purchased by PepsiCo in 2006. Yes, for easily-avaiable OJ you can choose to give your money to Coke or Pepsi.

While these products usually have QA to ensure good taste, they still suffer from the same problems that Fresh-Squeezed oranges have: Seasonality. I feel these products are a catch-22. If you observe a consistency, it is likely the cause of flavor-packs as before, or other ‘funny business.’ The real world’s oranges are not consistent.

1. fresh squeezed IN SEASON, Know your varietals
2. Obtain as much as you can at the height of the season
a. peel flavedo and infuse in spirit
b. juice and freeze in useful size
3. Find a professional product that is consistent and acceptible (ColTiki: eschew ‘quality products’ for cost and inconsistency – if consitent, bad as NFC OJ – buy it cheaper, “simply Orange”)

Ask for questions at end, What orange experiences have audience had, send me your varietal stories for database

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