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Comment by woodruffw | Hacker News Reader

This is a little bit of a tangent, but I've always thought that it was funny that orange juice is overwhelmingly sold in liquid form, not as frozen concentrate. You can buy concentrate here in the US, but it's much less common (and, IME, fewer and fewer grocery stores stock it.) Given that most liquid orange just is just reconstituted concentrate anyways, buying the liquid form means paying for the shipping and space cost of the water.

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>Given that most liquid orange just is just reconstituted concentrate anyways, buying the liquid form means paying for the shipping and space cost of the water.

You're incorrect. The "fresh" non-concentrated market is a lot bigger than the concentrate market in the US, at least. Has been since the 80's. It's more than a 10:1 ratio, actually.

Do you have a source for that? Not that I don't believe you; it's just surprising. My understanding was that orange juice ships poorly, even among fruit juices, which is why the concentrate market was still large.

Edit: I found a survey from 2009[1] where non-reconstituted orange juice was over 50% of the market. So I'm completely wrong about this!

[1]: https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/media/crecifasufledu/extension/ext...

"Not from concentrate" juice is still pasteurised and stored in tanks for months or years before being packaged into the final supermarket packaging, with vitamins, minerals and flavourings added to revive it. It's not any healthier than concentrate, but it is more expensive to store and transport as the water isn't removed.

I guess that explains how they get around the spoliation. Thanks for the explanation.

The problem is that to store orange juice "fresh, never concentrated" you have to take all the oxygen out, this makes the juice taste like... well nothing. so then they have to put the flavor back in.

It makes me wonder if the frozen concentrate is actually closer to the original orange than the "fresh never concentrated" stuff?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_juice

Also interesting that elsewhere liquid concentrate is also popular. Which has the same benefits as frozen but with less of the hassle. Sometimes called Squash[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_(drink)

> buying the liquid form means paying for the shipping and space cost of the water.

Buying frozen solid means cleaning up your mixer. I also bet it's easier to lose some fiber.

Either way, the taste isn't the same as freshly made juice.

I'm from Brazil and loved tangerine/mandarin juice since when I was a kid. Now I've moved to the Netherlands and love it even more. How come, you may ask? In Brazil, we usually find tangerine pulps. Here, I buy fresh tangerine in the supermarket. Sure thing, it takes much longer to squeeze them and clean things up... but the taste is 5 times better.

> Buying frozen solid means cleaning up your mixer. I also bet it's easier to lose some fiber.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've always just put the concentrate brick (cylinder?) into a pitcher, filled it up with the right amount of water, and mixed it until fully melted. It's no worse to clean up than anything else in a pitcher would be.

I agree completely about fresh-squeezed juices, by the way. I do my own juices directly when I have time! But the point was about American consumers, who are buying reconstituted concentrate anyways (just that someone's done the reconstituting for them.)

US has "not from concentrate" juice. That's the primary reason people buy Tropicana instead of store brand.

I think most Tropicana in the US is from concentrate. "Pure Premium" is their sub-brand for NFC (not-from-concentrate) at the moment; they've previously called it "Tropicana Natural" but were sued since even NFC orange juice requires significant processing to make it last more than a few days.

(Which goes to the other point: most store brand orange juice comes from your local Dole, Minute Maid, or Tropicana distribution center, which is bottling/filling the cartons from concentrate. It's all the same supply chain, the only thing that's different is the brand tax.)

Edit: Weakened the claim about how much is from concentrate, because I'm having trouble finding a statistic.

Second edit: I'm wrong, the majority of orange juice sold in the US is NFC. So this is a market distinction I wasn't aware of.

> the only thing that's different is the brand tax

They have different flavor bombs.

Same as branded gas that all comes from the same regional depot with vendor specific additives dumped in the trailer before delivery.

>he point was about American consumers, who are buying reconstituted concentrate anyways (just that someone's done the reconstituting for them

They aren't. Over 90% of orange juice sold in the US is not from concentrate.

not from concentrate does not mean it isnt reconstituted. its just that instead of removing the water to preserve it they remove the oxygen. deaeration removes more flavor than dehydration, so they must be put back in. thats why tropicana tastes more like orange juice than orange juice

I keep reading this here but this is forbidden by law in France (as they call it "100% pur jus"). They could add vitamin C if they wanted but they don't seem to, given the nutritional data.

Is Tropicana juice different in the US and in the EU?

Not wrong at all, this is a great idea (as long as it mixes well).

I've resorted to something similar when making my tangerine juice: I put some water, ice, and a sugar cane "square" in the jar or cups first, and then go to squeeze the juice. By the time I'm over making lunch or dinner, the juice is ready without having to use a spoon to mix it.

I got into the mango orange juice, and it got really hard to find.. which led me to frozen and there’s no going back! There are so many more options, and a lot more options without added sugars and corn syrup being added to the mix.

In case you were avoiding added sugars and corn syrup due to nutritional concerns, I have heard doctors for over a decade come to the conclusion that fruit juice is as bad as soda due to the total sugar content. You would not eat 10 oranges, but you can easily drink 10 oranges worth of sugar in a few gulps.

One of the questions pediatricians ask nowadays is do you keep fruit juice in the house, and I believe they ask so that they can advise you to get rid of it or prevent the kids from drinking it.

Around here, concentrate + water costs as much the dilute, or even more, so why bother?

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