Post #721871 by wizzard419 on Mon, Jul 7, 2014 12:25 PM

I don't think you can sell (outside of a farm stand) juice that isn't pasteurized because it would immediately start to ferment and while even more alcohol (all soft-drinks contain trace levels) would be nice, having your juice containers burst from all the CO2 would probably not be so cool.

The juice industry apparently is quite weird. OJ, for example, is rumored to use "flavoring capsules" (or some other term) where the juice basically starts out like water with no flavor and then the sugars, pulp, oils, etc are added back in tiny particles that burst open as the product degrades so the fresh flavor remains. This isn't limited to the cheap brands either, this is done for every brand, creating unique flavor profiles that can be consistently produced all year round. Which is also why you never say "I won't drink OJ in the summer because it doesn't taste good".

Even bottled water apparently has a similar process for spring water. Since they need a consistent level of dissolved salts and minerals (and also just in case of well contamination) they distill the water then add back the correct levels.