• UnPassive@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Uses to use these to make a whiskey slush that would take like 3 days to freeze and during the 4th of July weekend we’d have to protect the freezer from the uncles trying to “grab just a cup” early

      • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        You would take this frozen juice concentrate, mix this with copious amounts of whiskey, and then set it in the freezer. Because of the high alcohol content, it would not freeze like regular liquid. This was in anticipation of a family get-together around the 4th of July. Without judicious monitoring, the adult men would drink all of the punch before it was ready to be served.

        Clear as mud?

        • Corngood@lemmy.ml
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          33 minutes ago

          We used to do one can of frozen OJ to one bottle of vodka. I don’t think we ever gave it 3 days to freeze though. It was a pleasant slush.

          We called it ‘juice’.

      • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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        2 hours ago

        They used the Minute Maid as a mixer with whiskey, which they would then freeze into a slushy/slurry thing. It would take about 3 days in the freezer to hit its “final form”, so to speak. Very popular at their family’s/neughborhood’s/local 4th of July (U.S. Independence Day) parties.

        The beverage was tasty/intoxicating enough that middle-aged male relatives and/or friends would try to sneak “just a cup” (not literally 8 fluid ounces / ~240 mL) before the beverage was made generally available to party-goers, and potentially even prior to the day of the party. This risks not having enough for the party itself, because of selfishness.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I never understood why Americans freeze this stuff? Like we have juice concentrates in the UK, be we just keep them as a liquid in a bottle or as a syrup in a little squeeze thing.

    • Rachel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 hours ago

      I think it has the longest life before going bad and it was a popular choice for low income families who wanted to stock up on stuff. I think it also became popular for food banks to hand out as well. Though we’ve moved away from that mostly. I rarely see people buy them anymore and if they do they likely do it by habit because they grew up in a family that used it.

      I assume store brands and other brands will still keep making that stuff.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      This isn’t the same as Robinson’s orange syrup. It’s literally frozen orange pulp and juice that’s been concentrated down by evaporating off the water. It’s not remotely shelf stable, but what you get is literally the same orange juice you could buy in a box in the store, at a fraction of the cost because you save on shipping weight and packaging. It’s amazing stuff and I wish I’d had access to it back when I lived in the UK.

      • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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        2 hours ago

        Orange juice, minus most of the water. Add the water back yourself, save the cost of shipping a larger/heavier item, and reduced packaging costs.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      It’s a relic from another time. For a very long time it was one of the only ways to keep fresh-tasting juice for long periods. There was a time when if you wanted orange juice when it wasn’t orange juice season, you would go grab a frozen brick of the stuff out of the freezer.

      That or get Tang powder or something, which is pretty far from tasting like real juice.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        No, the British stuff lasts forever, but it tastes like ass. We call it “squash” and it’s just fruit flavoured sugar syrup. It makes something kind of like flat Fanta.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    9 hours ago

    When I was a kid, I remember the grocery store freezers had a huge section devoted to racks of frozen concentrates. Now it’s just a tiny little space at the bottom somewhere. I guess even that’s going away.

  • garth@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    Future generations will never experience making this stuff with too little water to create a mixer that hides the taste of cheap booze.

    • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Yeah… water… we definitely weren’t using light beer to water down our hard liquor with this stuff

      • Saapas@piefed.zip
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        6 hours ago

        Juice concentrate, light beer and cheap booze? You got some advanced mixes

        • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          If I remember correctly the recipe was 1 handle of Everclear, 1 case of Natty light and 1 or 2 of the pink lemonade blocks. Easy and guaranteed to get you blackout drunk

          • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            Case of natty and handle of 190 proof alcohol would be an emergency room visit for most if they’re lucky.

            • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              I actually did the math and it works out to 17% abv or about 34 proof. Certainly on the high end of what you should put in a solo cup but we also usually had ice and as previously noted, the objective was to get fucked up

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        22 hours ago

        Given the choice between Flint water and Coors Light, I’d take the Flint water, thanks.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      My money is that someone will start pitching it as a green alternative. Dry / powered soaps are hot again because you’re not shipping and storing a bunch of water.

      If coke was smart, they would’ve put this green and brown tube, and called it “Juice, by Ecofruit”

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Energy wise it’s a wash whether it’s concentrated or not. Concentrated requires reducing it which is just boiling it down (under a vacuum apparently to reduce temps needed), and then freezing during transportation. Non-concentrated weighs more so more energy for transportation and more packaging, and still needs cooling. So they come out comparable afaik.

        • Not a newt@piefed.ca
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          15 hours ago

          I don’t believe that. On electric vehicles, 90% of the energy is used to move the thing. A charged EV battery can power a standard household worth of appliances for two days.

          Furthermore, the energy expenditure to dehydrate the concentrate is a one-time b cost, whereas transportation cost increases with distance.

          What I DO believe is that manufacturers see transportation as less of a cost, because they offload it to distribution networks.

          • someguy3@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Do you have any idea how much energy is needed to boil something down? It’s a shit ton.

            As for distance, you know they can do the calculations for a country right?

            This is not a calculation by the manufacturer. You’re ducking and weaving.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      23 hours ago

      Current generations including my own have already not had that experience.

      • mister_flibble@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        Used to make margaritas that way in college. Get the frozen limeade mix and replace half the water with equal parts cheap silver tequila and triple sec. Slice up some fresh lime on top if you’re feeling fancy.

        They’re really good but will absolutely wreck your shit.

        • Medic8eme@piefed.ca
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          9 hours ago

          Minute maid is the only maker left if you’re Canadian. The other maker stopped production a couple of years ago.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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    20 hours ago

    To be fair, we stopped buying their frozen juice around 20 years ago when the off-brand juices became just as good and Minute Maid started putting increased amounts of sugar in most of them (and jacking up the prices of the others).

    Then probably 5 years later, we just stopped buying juice altogether and went back to eating fruit and making smoothies from frozen fruit.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      9 hours ago

      When I went on my big diet a couple of years ago (I’ve lost 100 lbs so far), I started having a “healthy breakfast” that included some sort of juice, usually orange juice. My diet was working well, and my doctor asked about my method, and I mentioned juice.

      She immediately told me to stop drinking juice, saying “Don’t get your calories from juice, it’s mostly sugars, get your calories from real food.” I stopped drinking juice, and while I can’t identify the specific benefit of that, I can understand how a big sweet calorie bomb at the beginning of the day is not a good idea for weight loss.

    • BanMe@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Yeah I drank OJ like it was going out of style until I realized it was rotting my teeth and making me fat, just soda with fresher taste (and more acid). They don’t give juice to kids anymore. It was a scam. Fruit is awesome tho, I try to eat a couple pieces a day.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        It’s amazing how American diets are dictated by marketing agencies from NY. Eggs, bacon, juice, cereal were all marketing campaigns, not organic choices.

        People used to eat leftovers and pie for breakfast.

        • ThunderQueen@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Fr just eat food you like, and stop when youre full. Prioritize whole foods if you can but it really doesnt even matter that much as long as youre maintaining a balance.

          Barring an addicition or other ED, this works for most people i know to stay healthy

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        My old man was drinking like a gallon of OJ (boomer logic of vitamin C, juice is good for you, etc.) a week until the doctor said he was pre-diabetic lol.

  • robocall@lemmy.worldOP
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    23 hours ago

    Growing up in the 90s we often had this frozen concentrate in the freezer. But I hardly ever drink juice now, and prefer to eat oranges over drinking juice.

    • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      22 hours ago

      Same. The adults who raised me bought diet soda and always had a jug of fruit juice in the fridge for the kids.

      Why yes, they did always vote Republican. How did you know?

        • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          21 hours ago

          No, but the ignorance of blindly believing the TV (when it says that aspartame and sugar-rich fruit juices are healthy beverage options for kids) sure is.

          • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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            20 hours ago

            I think that was just the 90s. “Health food stores” were like 90% vitamins/supplements and 10% terrible bread and bulk bins of brewers yeast and brown rice.

            My family went to the heath food store a lot, voted blue and marched against nestle and the gulf war. And we drank a lot of concentrated orange juice.

            We thought juice was heathy 🤷‍♀️

            • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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              16 hours ago

              studies kept going back and forth how its a potential carcinogen. Likewise with stevia too, i suspect its a way to discourage stevia use and go on aspartame related drinks.

            • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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              16 hours ago

              Nothing, at best there’s some iffy studies that inconclusively say it might be, possibly a carcinogen.

              Maybe…

              • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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                4 hours ago

                The studies are not iffy, but if you try and publish any data questioning the safety of artificial sweetners, you could get turfed from a university because they have a massive war chest of lawyers defending a $600M industry.

                Aspartame is two synthetic amino acids and can interfere with brain signaling, especially in people who replace any water in their diet with diet sodas. No one anticipated the gluttony of diet soda drinkers, and FDA safety trials used a fraction of intake of the real world. US consumes 12 GALLONS per capita a year.

                Similarly, MSG industry has so many attack bots out there that if you even question if a brain neurotransmitter analog has side effects they label you a racist.

                As a biochemist, I would avoid any artificial sweetner or flavor enhancer. Aspartame certainly triggers carcinogenic pathways and since it came on the market, diabetes rates rapidly increased.

                https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38769413/

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        16 hours ago

        i dont see how it a political affiliation for these types of foods. it doesnt determine who you vote if you are drinking a certain beverage?

        • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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          16 hours ago

          A lot of the push that caused the myths of juice and what not in the 80s and 90s come from the Republicans. Was backed by Republican funding and businesses.

          So yes, it does actually weirdly have a political affiliation. It became wide spread across basically all of America. But Republicans were the first to do it, and the last to let it go.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    I guess cornering the market in Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice futures will be yet another anachronism, like taping a show or dialing a phone

    • myserverisdown@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I need to watch this movie still. I’ve been wanting to watch it since it was brought up in a infotainment video I watched on YouTube. Now’s the perfect time to watch I guess.

      • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        I rewatched it a couple years ago for the first time in decades. It holds up surprisingly well for an 80s comedy. The scene where they explain how the futures market works is basically right out of an economics text book. Like, literally. I believe they got an economics professor who wrote one of the most influential text books to consult on those parts of the film.

        If you want a fun chaser, watch Coming To America right after. There’s a bit of an easter egg cameo.

  • ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works
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    21 hours ago

    What weird timing. My husband and I were just telling our daughter how there used to be so many different types of frozen juice and now there’s hardly any.

    • relativestranger@feddit.nl
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      15 hours ago

      yea. there used to be two full doors or more in the freezer for just frozen concentrated juices. now there’s one little tiny shelf and all the variety is gone.

      there’s more profit in “premium” refrigerated “ready to drink” product.