Yesterday’s Irish Independent ran a taste-test on concentrated orange juices, and Superquinn’s Euroshopper option came out top of their list.
Juice is one of those things I spend more money than I should on. I know that they are much, much cheaper, but concentrated orange or apple juice just don’t taste the same. Concentrated orange juice, in particular, is bitter and cranky, when it should be sweet and joyful.
After three years, I figured that squeezing your own oranges seems a bit of a false economy – you can pay around €2 for a bag of 8-10 oranges but you won’t get a lot of juice out of it. I don’t want to buy a fruit juicer (for apple juice) as they require a lot of space and cleaning, and it would just become another thing sitting at the back of a shelf.
So I continue to buy not from concentrate apple juice. Of these, I don’t really like Dunnes’ offering. I prefer Dawn’s Apple Juice (€2.99 per litre, Tesco) to Copella Apple Juice (€2.35 per litre, Tesco), but I’ll always go with the cheaper option. The best own-brands, in my humble opinion, are Superquinn’s (€2.59 per litre) and Marks and Spencer (there’s usually a two for €4.50 deal on the latter).
One last tip: after years of pouring not from concentrate juice into my smoothies, I realised I’d been a very, very silly man. Concentrated apple juice from Sqeez, Fruice, or whoever worked just as well when blended up with other fruits , honey and yogurt. Now I buy one of each in the shopping.