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Comment by thaumasiotes | Hacker News Reader

> Almost nobody is going to eat 8 medium oranges in one sitting, but you might easily drink the resulting 16 oz of juice they produce.

There's more to it than that. I was lucky enough in China to encounter a vending machine for fresh orange juice. The machine included a press; you could watch whole oranges roll into the press and juice flow into the cup which was ultimately dispensed.

This is great as a novelty, but the juice you got was only very slightly more flavorful than water. No one is going to drink the juice of 8 oranges. What we drink is heavily concentrated, with vastly less water than would have been present in the fruit.

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I've had freshly made orange juice and it was very flavourful. I suspect the oranges used in the machine just were particularly watery in the first place.

In the United States, "100% pure Orange Juice, not-from-concentrate" can, and does, include adding concentrated juice which intensifies the flavor. It's distilled down a bit, but not reconstituted.

> What we drink is heavily concentrated, with vastly less water than would have been present in the fruit.

Non-fresh-squeezed orange juice is, universally, artificially flavored: https://gizmodo.com/dirty-little-secret-orange-juice-is-arti...

I don't agree with your assessment that fresh squeezed orange juice is watery though - its usually not. The china vending machine must not have had good oranges.

I walk down the street here in Mexico City and get me a glass of pressed-in-front-of-me OJ/grapefruit a few times per week and it's better than anything you can get at the store.

That machine has some dud oranges. But I encourage you to test your theory yourself with some store-bought oranges.

I'm surprised you have never made orange juice at home, let alone the fact you have never drunk fresh orange juice before going to china.

Exactly. That’s very odd to me. Had to read his comment several times.

Whole Foods has these. Sometimes, the juice is more potent and nuanced than anything pre-packaged. Depends on the oranges that go in!

We had an orange tree growing up. Fresh squeezed orange juice was a daily thing when it was in season. It was incredibly flavorful, much more flavorful than store bought OJ. If anything it was sweeter than the stuff you get in stores.

My guess is the machine was adding water.

honestly I find this a bit hard to believe. when I juice an orange in my kitchen I find the resulting juice to be way more flavorful than anything I can buy in the store (other than fresh-squeezed on premises). I almost want to dilute it with water because the flavor is so bright and tangy. maybe it depends what kind/quality of orange you start with?

As others have pointed out, haven't you made freshly squeezed orange juice at home or at a cafe?

It's decidedly not slightly more flavorful than water (not to mention the pulp that comes out with it). A cynical man might say the machine must have watered it down for you surreptitiously :p

That being said, it is decidedly far from "pulp-free orange-flavored fruit-drinks" or whatever marketing term is used to sell things like sunnyd or other orange coloured drinks having almost no relation to fruit juice.

(Fruit juice is itself still generally unhealthy because of the sheer amount of sugar you can consume in any one go and the acidity wrt dental health, but those fruit juice imitators are in another category again)

Did you have to wait until getting to China to try fresh orange juice? I make it myself at home occasionally. With as much fiber and bits falling inside as possible. It entirely depends on the oranges. Organic/bio usually tend to be a lot more flavorful. It also depends on the time of the year, they are usually a lot sweeter mid-season.

Not all oranges are equal, you clearly got the juice of tasteless oranges.

The machine you describe is fairly common. I bought a quart of fresh squeezed organic Valencia orange juice from such a machine in a Idyllwild, CA grocer and it was unbelievably good.

Nah, I had fresh squeezed orange juice from a similar machine in Spain and it was amazing. Far more flavorful than anything I've had in the states. It's all about the oranges you use.

Spain and California have appropriated climate to grow citrus. I’m not sure that much of China does.

The orange is native to China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit) And they produce about 2x as many oranges as the US (or about US + Spain combined), 2nd only to brazil.

China's about the same size as the US.. and a bit further south. So their climate is as varied as the US.

I've tried those machines in the US also. Either your oranges were drying up or they are watering down the juice. Fresh OJ is way better than the concentrate.

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