Orange Juice

[kevinthenerd]

I've lived in Florida my whole life, so maybe I'm just spoiled. I can't stand orange juice from concentrate. I buy orange juice in a regular grocery store these days, but I still insist on not-from-concentrate juice. I just find the cheapest stuff that's not concentrated and I'm happy... name brands mean nothing to me. Concentrated juice is terrible to me. It always has this taste to me that's just sort of... half unripe, half rotten. I can't put my finger on it. If you look at the nutritional information they don't even compare to each other either. You can't distill certain chemicals that are naturally found in oranges, so they try to add stuff back like vitamin C, but I'm sure there are good things in there that science hasn't discovered yet. History has proven time and again that humans who fool with nature because they think they know everything get the bad end of the deal. It's all done for cost anyway, so how high on the list do nutrition and taste really rate for these guys when a few pennies to the dollar are at stake?


With that said, is this really that big of an issue to you? How important is it that your orange juice is/isn't from concentrate?

PS/Edit: I heard that Florida produces 40% of the world's orange juice supply. I don't know how true that is....

 

[jonessoda]

I prefer it not be from concentrate, but I'm not too picky.

Most of the time when I drink orange juice, it's from a dispenser in the dining hall anyway, so I'm sure it's from concentrate.

 

[BigJ]

Not-from-concentrate. Light pulp.

 

[Throckmorton]

That's ironic what you said about humans fooling with nature because I can almost gaurantee that the oranges you drin are either genetically engineered or the result of a lot of selective breeding.

I know the taste you're talking about but I thought all commercial orange juice was like that. I don't drink any.

 

[Kelemvor]

As long as it's PULP FREE, I'm good.

 

[FoBoT]

we used to buy concentrate back when we are poor
now he only buy that good stuff, the simply orange

"I hate it from concentrate. I'll drink it from concentrate if I'm thirsty and it's free."

i voted light pulp, but i don't really care

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Minute maid is disgusting.

Simply Orange Grovestand
Tropicana Grovestand

Lots of pulp FTW! It's healthier, although I wouldn't mind if I had no pulp either. Sometimes I just have to get the no pulp one cuz it's on sale.

 

[mooglemania85]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
As long as it's PULP FREE, I'm good.

 

[electronicmaji]

Orange juice sucks.

it makes me more thirsty instead of quenching my thirst......

 

[cthulhu]

I prefer the good stuff - tropicana grovestand with lots of pulp.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
we used to buy concentrate back when we are poor
now he only buy that good stuff, the simply orange

"I hate it from concentrate. I'll drink it from concentrate if I'm thirsty and it's free."

i voted light pulp, but i don't really care

I grew up a lot more poor than my current lifestyle and I don't remember ever buying orange juice in the store. We were very lucky. My grandfather had trees and he'd bring over oranges. It became a bit of a tradition for him to bring over bags of oranges (or grapefruit or tangerines or tangelo or whatever), a carton of Publix butter pecan ice cream, and sugar wafers. To this day I don't know why he always came on Tuesday nights... maybe it was his TV schedule or something, although I don't think he was much of a TV guy. Nobody in my family had the heart to tell him we didn't like butter pecan ice cream, and I think he died without knowing that. It was much better that way.

So anyway, I grew up tasting fresh squeezed orange juice (watching my dad use the juicer). Tasting orange juice, for me, is always mixed with a lot of family memories that are inseparable from the whole experience. Whenever I taste bad orange juice I can't help but feel sorry for people who never had the chance I did to really taste it how God intended.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: cthulhu
I prefer the good stuff - tropicana grovestand with lots of pulp.

As I said, I have no brand preference. Well, actually, I guess I do, since I only buy it because it's the cheapest not-from-concentrate, and it's good to me. I've been drinking a lot of "Florida's Natural" brand.

 

[FoBoT]

i like butter pecan ice cream

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i like butter pecan ice cream

I learned to like it, but my sisters have always hated it.

 

[kevinthenerd]

While I'm on the subject... here's another $0.02 on foods that remind me of my past...

My dad made wine when I was younger. When I taste the muscadine wines made by Lakeridge Winery, I swear it's the same stuff. In my humble opinion, there isn't a wine more delicious than a muscadine white wine such as the "Southern White" or "Chablis" made by Lakeridge, depending on whether you're in the mood for something sweet or a little more on the dry side. I'm having a glass of their Chablis right now as I eat some home-blackened whiting. (I'm getting better at cooking fish. Whiting is hard to cook because it gets mushy, but man, this is my best yet.)

 

[natto fire]

This is so weird because while at work today, grocery store, I thought of making this same thread. The reason is, at out store, the Minute Maid is 10 cents more than Tropicana, and people still buy the Minute Maid. It is funny because the Minute Maid box says it is premium, but it is from concentrate. Simply orange is good, but look at the plastic jug compared to the cardboard carton. The carton is ~8 ounces more not to mention Tropicana is on sale a lot. Orange juice prices fluctuate quite a bit because it is a commodity item.

The reason I despise OJ from concentrate is because I used to make screwdrivers with it and cheap Vodka. Any time I drink concentrated it reminds me of that horrible concoction. Only exception is when I eat breakfast at a fast food place, but even then I usually get milk.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
This is so weird because while at work today, grocery store, I thought of making this same thread. The reason is, at out store, the Minute Maid is 10 cents more than Tropicana, and people still buy the Minute Maid. It is funny because the Minute Maid box says it is premium, but it is from concentrate. Simply orange is good, but look at the plastic jug compared to the cardboard carton. The carton is ~8 ounces more not to mention Tropicana is on sale a lot. Orange juice prices fluctuate quite a bit because it is a commodity item.

The reason I despise OJ from concentrate is because I used to make screwdrivers with it and cheap Vodka. Any time I drink concentrated it reminds me of that horrible concoction. Only exception is when I eat breakfast at a fast food place, but even then I usually get milk.

Yeah... I almost forgot about that. When I'm eating breakfast in a fast food place, looking at my food through one blood-shot eye, I'm usually deep enough in grease to not notice the other junk I'm throwing down my pie hole.

Edit:

I can't believe my friend used to PREFER the concentrate for screw drivers. I haven't made one with him in a long time, though. He might have changed his mind on that since he changed his mind on alcohol quality altogether since then. If he did it now I'm sure he'd use Goose so I guess he'd probably splurge for good OJ too. I know whenever he makes margaritas he uses nothing but Patron.

 

[Jeff7]

I never cared for any orange juice. It's all so sour, and the high acidity makes my teeth feel like they're melting and my mouth tingle at the same time.

I can't really tell the difference between fresh-squeezed and from concentrate, except that fresh squeezed usually has so much pulp that it's rather chewy.

 

[nonameo]

not from concentrate isn't usually as tart. I like it better, goes down smoother.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Do you remember that scene in The Matrix?

Why does everything taste like chicken?

When they were programming the Matrix... and trying to produce a believable simulation of what life should be like, there were some pieces of information that they were missing. One of these was what chicken was supposed to taste like. None of the programmers had a clue what chicken should taste like, so they just made it taste like everything.

It's sad that this is true for orange juice. People who drink it from concentrate all the time don't even know what it's supposed to taste like because industry decided that it should taste like crap in order to make it cheaper to ship.

 

[TwiceOver]

I'm not an orange juice snob, but from what I have tried...

Simply Orange Original pulp-free is the best I have had. Also simply Lime-ade which has pulp but is a little too sweet but also a good choice.

 

[Fritzo]

I think everyone would prefer fresh, but the orange shortage has driven 2qts of orange juice to $3-$4---and that's too damned expensive. Supermarkets have limited and poor stocks of all citrus, so they're pushing bumper mango crops this year. You'll notice all the "orange juice blends" out now to compensate for this as well.

Minute Maid orange juice drives me nuts: Their cartons say "FRESH SQUEEZED" on the front, then "made from concentrate" in small letters on the bottom. How can they get away with that?

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
History has proven time and again that humans who fool with nature because they think they know everything get the bad end of the deal.

I welcome our new mutant orange juice overlords.

 

[LS20]

Simply Orange high-pulp here

absolutely no concentrate juice for me...tastes too sharp and caustic

 

[Anubis]

prefer non concentrate but whatever

HIGH PULP FTMFW