Juicing: naked fruit test – Orange Juice

So, does juicing really taste better than drinking the packaged juices at the store?

To answer this question, I decided to do a simple taste test.

I haven’t gone into the store and bought “kale-cucumber-tomato” juice before, but I’ve certainly had my share of store-bought orange juice.  So it seemed to me that a great flavor test would be doing a little comparison between freshly squeezed and store bought OJ.  One product, one flavor.  Nowhere to hide.

I put three oranges into my juicer and away we went.

Test Results

If you love OJ and have never had it freshly squeezed, then I suggest you put away your computer and go buy a juicer right now.  Now.  Run, don’t walk.

Rather than spend $8/ glass at your nearby fancy brunch place, invest in a juicer and have this nectar available to you at any time.  Freshly squeezed orange juice is…like something the juicing angels dropped down from heaven: naturally sweet, tangy, pulpy, and – weirdly – room temperature.  As irrelevant as it might seem, all the orange juice that I’ve had in my day has been cold from the fridge (unless it is a juice box beverage like Capri-Sun…but let’s not go there).   Perhaps similar to a red wine, the relative warmth of the juice opened all sorts of yummy flavors into my mouth.

In short: delicious.

The flat, perky taste of Tropicana simply cannot measure up against the effulgence of fresh orange juice.  And if you do mostly savory juices like I do, the sugar kick is like a ray of internal sunshine.

I’m not sure about the comparison in nutritional content, but I’d wager the freshly squeezed outstrips the Tropicana.  Either way, you’ll get a hefty whack of Vitamin C, A, Thiamin, and Potassium to start off your day.

Side hint:

I’ve developed a rather nasty habit of taking chlorella powder as a supplement.  Chlorella itself is great; the nasty part is dissolving it into water and actually drinking it.  (Tastes like lawn mower detritus.  I hold my nose, swallow quickly, and drink more water before I dare to breathe again.)  On the advice of a friend, I used some of my OJ as the solution for the powder and – presto – the unpleasant taste was almost completely obscured.  Brilliant!