While your morning glass of orange juice won’t taste any different, it’s got more oranges than usual in it. Thanks to a water problem, the world’s largest exporter is having to squeeze many more fruits just to make you the same amount of juice [More]
orange juice
Why Are Americans Losing Interest In Orange Juice?
By 12.16.14
Why aren’t Americans as into orange juice as we used to be? It’s not just the Duke brothers asking that question: citrus growers and juice sellers all want to know why consumption of what used to be a staple breakfast food is down. Are carb-conscious consumers no longer interested in fruit juice? [More]
Wegmans And Walmart Deploy Target Math To Sell OJ, Mouthwash
By 8.4.14
Buying in bulk to save money seems like a good idea, but in practice it doesn’t work so well. Want proof? Check out these examples of unit prices that go up the more you buy. We call it Target Math, since the phenomenon happens often in Target stores. Not exclusively in Target stores, though, as you will see. [More]
The Rising Cost Of Breakfast: You’ll Need To Bring Home More Bacon To Buy Your Bacon
By 3.21.14
Hold onto your hot cakes and don’t spill a drop of that orange juice — breakfast prices are rising, making it a lot costlier to bring home the bacon. As in, the actual bacon, not money bacon. Though you will be spending more money bacon to eat real bacon. Now I’m suffering from bacon confusion and probably need to eat some bacon. [More]
Your Morning OJ Is The Result Of A Complicated Algorithm Designed For Maximum Tastiness
By 2.1.13
Whether you like it pulp-free, full of pulp, sweet or tarty, orange juice is probably the most popular breakfast beverage around, especially when it’s freshly-squeezed. Pressed for time, many consumers opt for “fresh” offerings like Coca-Cola’s Simply Juice orange juice. But despite that moniker, it turns out the stuff is anything but simple. Instead, the company employs a baffling array of complicated mathematical calculations, satellite imagery and an all-knowing algorithm. [More]
There Are Enough Oranges For Your Morning Squeeze So Stop Stressing
By 3.19.12
Remember when fungicides from Brazil and other orange-producing countries was going around tainting loads of juice and everyone was freaking out like, “Argh, now where will I get my Vitamin C from?!?!?” ? Don’t worry, guys. The government says there won’t be a shortage of the beloved citrus. So calm down. [More]
Coca-Cola Reveals It Blew The Whistle On Orange Juice Contamination
By 1.13.12
When word broke that the Food and Drug Administration had halted orange juice shipments to check for a potentially harmful fungicide, the government was mum on which company found evidence that triggered the reaction. Now Coca-Cola solved the mystery by confirming it was responsible for spotting carbendazim — an illegal fungicide believed to cause infertility — in a shipment from Brazil.
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According to the AP, Coca-Cola spotted carbendazim not only in its own drinks, but those of a competitor. Testing revealed of 35 parts per billion of the fungicide in a Coke product, a level that the Environmental Protection Agency poses no significant threat. [More]
FDA Puts Squeeze On Orange Juice Shipments, Checks For Fungicide
By 1.12.12
Determined not to let orange juice double as unintentional contraception, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has frozen shipments to check for carbendazim, a fungicide banned in much of the world that is believed to cause infertility. As much as 25 percent of the American juice supply comes from abroad, and the FDA acted on a report that a juice company detected the fungicide in imports from Brazil, which provides 11 percent of America’s OJ. [More]
Florida Department Of Citrus Sends List Of Facts About Orange Juice
By 8.2.11
The Florida Department of Citrus sent over a few paragraphs of information in response to my post, “The Flavor Of Your OJ Is A Chemically-Induced Mirage” from last week. [More]
The Flavor Of Your OJ Is A Chemically-Induced Mirage
By 7.29.11
There’s a dirty secret in your glass of orange juice. Even though it says “not from concentrate,” it probably sat in a large vat for up to year with all the oxygen removed from it. This allows it to be preserved and dispensed all year-round. Taking out all the O2 also gets rid of all the flavor. So the juice makers have to add the flavors back in using preformulated recipes full of chemicals called “flavor packs.” Mmm, delicious, fresh-squeezed ethyl-butyrate! [More]
Tropicana Hit By Grocery Shrink Ray, Introduces Half-ish Gallon Of OJ
By 3.10.10
The same crappy weather that has Wendy’s declaring a only-if-you-ask-for-them tomato policy has made Tropicana pull out ye olde Grocery Shrink Ray, reducing their half-gallon Pure Premium OJ jugs by 5 oz. to 59 oz. [More]
Another Angry McDonald's Customer Calls 911; Angry Employee Also Calls 911
By 5.29.09
A 20-year-old in Aloha, Oregon, called 911 on Memorial Day to complain that he wasn’t given the orange juice he ordered. While he was on the phone describing this emergency, a McDonald’s employee also called 911 to complain that the 20-year-old was blocking the drive-thru. And somewhere in the city, a kitten died in a tree fire because the emergency lines were all tied up. UPDATE: We’ve located the audio of both calls.
By 4.2.09
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Forget all that spin about listening to customer complaints: it looks like the real reason Tropicana killed off its rebranding push after only two months is because sales dropped by 20% during that period, while some big competitors posted double-digit gains. We have a feeling Tropicana is going to end up in a lot of business and marketing textbooks in the future. [AdAge] (Thanks to Ross!)
By 2.26.09
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One final Tropicana thing: this video clip from 5 weeks ago shows Peter Arnell explaining the thought process behind the Tropicana redesign. It’s a peek behind the curtains at how much thought goes into packaging, and how it’s designed to communicate to you subconsciously. [AdAge] (Thanks to wanda!)
Tropicana's Failed Packaging Design Was A Real Life Poochie
By 2.26.09
The Tropicana redesign disaster seemed strangely familiar to us, and we just now realized why: the Simpsons already did it.
"Loyal Customer" Backlash Forces Tropicana To Abandon New Packaging
By 2.23.09
The New York Times says that “loyal” Tropicana customers are up in arms about the new packaging, calling it “ugly,” “generic” and claiming that it looks like a store brand. Others say that the packaging makes it difficult to distinguish between the different varieties of orange juice.
15 Victims Of The Grocery Shrink Ray
By 8.1.08
The Grocery Shrink Ray continues its miniature spree across the supermarket aisles of America. Here’s 14 more victims that have surfaced in the past week, as spotted by our watchful bands of deputized Consumerist reader-investigators…
