Put Good In…Get Good Out?
The other day I opened my fridge and this carton of Minute Maid brand lemonade caught my eye. Probably because the packaging is so brightly designed, but also because I was in the mood for juice. My other choices were cranberry juice and V8 Fusions (which are really good, by the way).
So, I started my usual routine of inspecting the packaging and ingredients. Oh, what’s this?
Also made with real lemons instead of fake lemons?
If that’s a little too small to read, it says: “You can taste and feel these words in every drop of Minute Maid. We fill every glass with the delicious, refreshing goodness you have come to expect from us. All because when it comes to life, we believe what you believe. The effort you put in is equal to the good you get out.” And it’s made with 100% natural flavors! How refreshing indeed. The little spiel on the back might be a little righteous, but I guess that’s just their sell. All-in-all, though, seems like some very good lemonade. Hold on, though, what’s this…
Natural flavors my ass!
What, wait, WHAT? The second ingredient is, not one, but two types of sweetener. THEN the lemon juice. What happened to delicious, refreshing goodness Minute Maid! Putting some lemon juice concentrate in sugar water is NOT putting good in. Not to mention, the last time I checked, high fructose corn syrup and sugar are not natural flavors. But I guess the 100% natural flavors thing only applies to the ingredient “natural flavors.”
I’m pretty used to seeing products claim that they have no artificial flavors or all natural flavors and then list high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient. No big deal, food corporations have to lie to you about the insane amounts of sugar somehow. But if you’re going to preach to me about the goodness of your product on the side of the box, I’m going to be a bit surprised when you in fact have a similar ingredients list to soda. Minute Maid totally had me thinking that it was a nice juice, and then it just let me down!
So needless to say Minute Maid is a lying trollop and I went with the V8 Fusion. Do you guys care about this stuff like I do, or am I just a super pretentious snob?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the second one, because I ordered natural, aspartame-free gum online…
Hello, my name's Josh and I might be a hipster (you decide!). I've been blogging and designing in some form for the past eight or so years and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (once again, you decide!). I love indie music, coming of age stories, sarcasm, video games, and aesthetics. At the moment I'm working part-time and going to college with hopes of being a web designer. 
Posted by Emsz — Wednesday, April 6th 2011
You realise that it said Lemonade, right? And that if you wouldn’t put anything but the lemon in, it would be pretty sour?
Personally, I would excuse the sugar, as there was bound to be some in it. The high fructose corn syrup is another matter though.
Posted by gem — Wednesday, April 6th 2011
Yeah, clearly you’ve never had a lemonade stand, haha. There’s no way you would put more lemon in it than sugar. And sugar is a natural flavor. It comes from sugar cane. High fructose corn syrup is also a natural flavor, made from corn. I mean… what does natural mean to you? Like should it be in no way processed? Because then you shouldn’t be drinking anything that comes in a package, you should be juicing your own fruits/vegetables, so get on that, yo.
Posted by Sara — Wednesday, April 6th 2011
I agree with Gem in the sense that sugar IS a natural flavor, and if you are against that…what do you eat? LOL
On the other hand, I agree with you about aspartame/sugar-free gum. That stuff is daaaangerous! Same with diet soda, it has the same ingredient if not similar chemicals! I knew this guy who did a test of drinking diet soda every day and he started hallucinating….and when he stopped, he went back to normal.
Blurg. I’m going to go try V8 fusions…sounds yummy.
Posted by Josh — Wednesday, April 6th 2011
Obviously it needs some type of sweetener, but HFCS is definitely NOT a natural flavor. That’s like saying heroin is a naturally occurring chemical because it comes from opium. The sugar is excusable, like Emma said, but the HFCS is not really natural. And if they wanted, they could get even more natural than sugar. They could use actual cane juice or cane sugar. Regular sugar is still processed, and HFCS is extra processed.
My main point was that if Minute Maid is going to brag about being so awesome and putting so much effort into their drinks, they shouldn’t be the same as every other extra sugary drink.
Posted by Liz — Saturday, April 9th 2011
If I want lemonade, I make my own now. It costs more, but it tastes better, and I know exactly how much of something and what is going into it! :)
Posted by Ashley — Sunday, April 10th 2011
Amen.
V8 Fusions is basically the only juice I drink, besides the occasional Ocean Spray if my school’s grocery store is out of stock. I hate Minute Maid, personally, I think it’s REALLY gross. Way too sappy.
Posted by Domenica — Tuesday, April 12th 2011
I like orange juice better than lemon, so I am not surprised by the fact that they are tainting it with bad ingredients. :P
I find it sad though that people do not notice that is has artificial flavors and actually fall for the lies.