As pointed out to me by Craig, over at Boing Boing they’ve got an excerpt from a Boston Globe interview with the author of Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice
What isn’t straightforward about orange juice?HAMILTON: It’s a heavily processed product. It’s heavily engineered as well. In the process of pasteurizing, juice is heated and stripped of oxygen, a process called deaeration, so it doesn’t oxidize. Then it’s put in huge storage tanks where it can be kept for upwards of a year. It gets stripped of flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it’s ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh. People think not-from-concentrate is a fresher product, but it also sits in storage for quite a long time.
To what degree is orange juice still made from Florida oranges?
HAMILTON: Most concentrate is now from Brazil. Shipping it is relatively easy. Until recently, you could count on [Tropicana] Pure Premium being from Florida, but shipping technology has advanced. Companies like Tropicana have started shipping full-strength juice from Brazil rather than buying and squeezing in Florida. The majority of not-from-concentrate is coming from Florida-squeezed oranges, but that’s certainly changing. The orange growing is moving to Brazil, which grows the most oranges for juice by far. Land is cheaper, and environmental regulations are almost nonexistent.
Squeeze fresh folks, as often as you can. I squeeze fresh in low volume (at home), and in high volume (at work). It means a few more trips to the store, but oh the difference! Hell, even freezing your own might do the trick. Got some secrets on keeping fresh citrus fresh? Post a comment!
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My dad was a food scientist with General Foods and has always said “You can freeze anything.” It doesn’t mean the result will turn out, though — my dad being something of a smartarse.
People with citrus trees report a good deal of success freezing extra fruit, either as juice or even just freezing the whole fruit. The latter result loses all the nice texture of the fruit, but if you only want juice who cares?
I’m anxious for Valencias to show up; best juice oranges I’ve ever found.
Jeff’s comment above addresses the question I was going to ask: “What are the best oranges fer juicin’?”
I always read the labels on OJ and they are so confusing, like “freshly squeezed from concentrate”. They just don’t want people to squeeze their own oranges. It’s like the whole thing that people don’t like tiki drinks because they take too much time, people think squeezing orange juice just isn’t worth the effort. Sad sad people. Get off your ass and squeeze a orange mofo. Even the most expensive, best packaged orange juice isn’t anything like freshly squeezed. But I guess us tiki kids just prefer quality over quantity.
Rum Balls, I had an opportunity to check that out — the question of “best orange.”
Research is at http://rantsofthehedgehog.blogspot.com/2009/03/orange-you-glad-you-asked.html
Thanks, Jeff!