Have you ever wondered why commercialized Orange Juice doesn't taste like juice from oranges?

I have never drank pasteurized orange juice or concentrate that tasted EXACTLY like freshly squeezed orange juice. Probably because it's not possible. I used to hate orange juice as a kid but eating oranges was much more pleasant! Never pondered why. The brands I drank were probably Minute Maid or Tropicana. It always had a bitter taste. Simply Orange (owned by Coca-Cola) still does not come close.

And what is annoying is how these orange juice manufacturers purposefully deceive its consumers by stating on their packaging "fresh oranges", "home squeezed", "100% oranges", "never from concentrate", "pure", "natural". They are just words to lure you to buy the product without in-depth thinking.

So what do these manufacturers do? They add "flavor" into the juice. According to Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice, she said:

it is because storing full strength pasteurized orange juice is more costly and elaborate than storing the space saving concentrate from which “from concentrate” is made. The technology of choice at the moment is aseptic storage, which involves stripping the juice of oxygen, a process known as “deaeration,” so it doesn’t oxidize in the million gallon tanks in which it can be kept for upwards of a year. When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor. Mexicans and Brazilians have a different palate. Flavor packs fabricated for juice geared to these markets therefore highlight different chemicals, the decanals say, or terpene compounds such as valencine.

Makes you wonder why nothing is said on the carton about this. And how can they get away with “100% Pure Squeezed Orange Juice” on their carton? Things like this makes me upset.

I will forever drink only water unless I see that the juice is freshly made.

Source: http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-orange-juice-in-boxes/