Post #613902 by Swanky on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 9:43 AM

Mr. Martin Cate was telling me that tests show a significant change in juices (lime juice included) just 2 hours after squeezing. The above mentioned taste test shows the same. If you squeeze juice in the morning or yesterday, the drink you make will not be the same as the drink made with the juice squeezed just now.

It would be up to the taster whether this is better or worse tasting, but I can assure you, the masters prefered freshly squeezed. At the Mai-Kai, back in the day, they did not prep the juices at noon. They had Cuban staff in a shed behind the main building (to keep the smell and flies away from guests) squeezing the juices fresh all night long. I can only assume this was also done at DtB as the Mai-Kai was built on the foundational traditions of DtB. In an interview I did recently with the founder of the Mai-Kai who got his start at DtB, it was argued that unless you are squeezing the juice that way, then you are not using what they called fresh squeezed juices. It was an imitation of the original DtB drink that was inferior.