Minute Maid is discontinuing its brand of frozen juice products. This includes orange Juice, lemonade and limeade. Does anyone out there use these items or have memories of using them? I really don’t have any but I’m sure I’ve used them.
I use frozen OJ in my carrot and ginger soup and couple of other things. When I was a kid, that was the OJ!
We don’t drink OJ on the regular anymore, but the frozen concentrate was a go-to back when we did. Easy enough, and less expensive than cartons that often contain reconstituted juice anyway. And of course, oranges are seasonal. My logic was that if I didn’t have access to fresh-squeezed OJ, why not simply add water to concentrate myself.
I was an occasional user of the lemonade too.
I grew up with both Minute Maid’s frozen OJ concentrate and lemonade concentrate. I can’t find MM’s lemonade anymore, so I buy my local Market Basket brand for my summertime V&Ls. If I buy OJ now, it’s always a bottle, and usually a smaller one as I don’t drink it as much as I used to.
I vaguely remember making a dinner recipe (I think it was a savory dish?) using some defrosted OJ concentrate, undiluted, but can’t remember for the life of me.
Adding to summer grocery list. For the sole purpose of making Arnold Palmers. ![]()
I keep it in the freezer. Not for making juice, but for scooping.
Mrs. ricepad has a bran muffin recipe we like that uses a small quantity of frozen OJ concentrate, maybe two tablespoons or so. We have two orange trees from which we get fresh OJ, but we usually have a can or two of the concentrate in the fridge just for the muffins. I may have to pick up another couple to have on hand.
This is what we drank when I was a child (1950s and 1960s). Actually, I think we tended to the frozen tangerine juice, which was discontinued ages ago.
I used to always buy MM frozen juices. I don’t know why I quite buying frozen juices but recently I have started using them again. I buy Kroger brand, orange, lemon, lime and apple. I keep them frozen and mix them with tonic instead of water. It make a refreshing drink. I also use frozen lime juice in a Margarita instead of fresh lime and agave syrup.
The gist of it starts at 6:55.
TL;DR - “not from concentrate” OJ is made by flash pasteurization, sucking all the oxygen out of it, then storing in industrial vats, which can sit for a year. Pasteurization and no oxygen means taste is removed….so they add in flavor agents before selling. And it’s why a lot of OJ tastes like crap and I’d venture to say why OJ isn’t consumed as previously.
Frozen concentrate seems like a better way but you know, COSTS.
We used to make ice cream using frozen OJ concentrate.
It was like a Creamsicle without the stick.
We used to do the same thing, best orange ice cream I have ever had.
Growing up in the 60s and 70’s, we always had frozen orange juice for breakfast. Of course, nobody would think to defrost it the night before, so I have memories of “smushing” the frozen blob with a big wooden spoon to make it.
My mother would thaw it first in the refrigerator, and my husband claimed she let it sit in the refrigerator too long and that it had a “mentholated” taste. I never noticed it; I wonder if that was the tangerine flavor rather than straight orange.
I also grew up on it in the 70s. I had 2 brothers (so three boys) and the amount of milk and OJ we went through was insane (or so we’ve been told our whole lives). So it was also easier to store and keep on hand.
In my 20-30s I used frozen limeaide for frozen margaritas - was sooo easy. Cut a cardboard tube of limeaide in half (the most dangerous part). Put the half in the blender - using the 1/2 cardboard tube as the measurer - add 1 tequila, 1/2 triple sec, fill blender with ice, blend until smooth. Done.
Haven’t made that in decades and can still remember it ![]()
That sounds about 1000x better than the nasty green “margarita mix” I used to buy at the convenience store. Mixed with some bottom-shelf “gold” tequila. Ahh, the memories of those nights…if I had any?
Funny, growing up in the late 70s/80s, I always heard that the frozen MM OJ was essentially for those types of recipes - to make a mixed beverage or cocktail. We never had frozen, and bought the carton kind only for my dad who looooved OJ. We always had a such an excess of oranges leftover from Chinese New Year, that we would juice our own by mid Feb.
My family would just put the sealed container in a pot filled with hot water. That was our quick defrost if we needed it right away.
gosh i hadn’t thought of that in AGES - remember it now!
