Drink - Fruit Juice

Fruit Juice

Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few or no additives. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are familiar breakfast drinks. Grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also common. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice. Many kinds of berries are crushed and their juices mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Juices were probably the earliest drinks besides water. Grape juice allowed to ferment produces wine. Orange juice and coconut water remain by far the most highly consumed juices.

Fruits are highly perishable so the ability to extract juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Early storage of fruit juices was labor intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling.