I was feeling a little sick today so I thought drinking some orange juice would help. I've always heard that Vitamin C and lots of liquids are good for recovering from colds (although I had a slight fever, so maybe that wouldn't have helped). Interestingly, I found a research, while browsing Google, that states even "100% pure" orange juice is artificially flavored.
No wonder the typical "fresh-squeezed" orange juice from grocery stores never tasted like fresh oranges to me, which is why I never liked orange juice much.
Apparently, in order to mass-produce orange juice, big name brands (like Tropicana, Minute Maid, Florida's Natural, etc) pasteurize fresh orange juice and take out all of the oxygen in order to preserve it without adding chemicals (the juice is then stored in million-gallon tanks for up to a year before shipping out to grocery stores).
Once the oxygen has been removed, the juice no longer tastes much like oranges, so companies have their own blend of artificial flavoring to make the juice taste like oranges again and to make sure each carton is consistently flavored with the taste their juices are known for.
Juices geared for us North American consumers taste different than the juices geared for our neighbors north and south of the borders.
Since the artificial flavorings are technically derived from orange essences and oil, the juice can still be labeled "100% orange juice."
So now I feel less guilty for not liking store-bought orange juice and will invest in a juicer like this. 🙂
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