The Freak Show

... about juice. Except that this looks to be a bit more than just gossip, hearsay or misinformation. Minute Maid has announced that it's getting out of the frozen concentrated juice business:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/minute-maid-discontinuing-frozen-juice-9.7065520

Some people may be saying, "So what? Isn't the ready-to-drink stuff more convenient?"

Not to me it isn't. In fact, it promises to seriously disrupt our whole grocery shopping schedule!

At the moment, my partner and I do our main grocery shop every two weeks. Typically we buy about 8 cans of orange juice on each trip. One can provides the two of us with our morning orange juice for two days: four fairly generous glasses of juice. So if you're good with figures, you can figure out that seven cans will last us the full fortnight, leaving one extra can in case we can't get out on our usual shopping day, or we want to use some juice in baked goods, or we need extra O.J. to make screwdrivers or tequila sunrises as the sun sets on a particularly stressful day.

The eight containers of juice fit easily into a normal-sized shopping bag, with room left over for the frozen veggies, frozen pierogis, ice cream or whatever. Now, imagine how much bag space we'd need to hold 32 already-made-up glasses of juice. Not to mention how heavy those bags would be, the number of un-reusable bottles we'd toss in the recycle bin, and the amount of fridge space we'd need to store it!

We're fortunate to still have a family car, although only my partner drives. But what about people who, whether by choice or necessity, rely on other modes of transport like walking, cycling, taking notoriously unreliable public transit, and so on?

With frozen concentrate, you just make up the juice as needed, in a container you can re-use over and over again. You can make the juice stronger or weaker, according to taste.

Admittedly, ready-made juices do have their place. Maybe there's a water shortage or your water supply is unsafe for some reason or you're going on a hike or a picnic where you may not have ready access to a decent water source. Cold or frozen juice-boxes may be great at keeping your kid's lunch cold for the morning, while being thawed to a palatable temperature by lunch time. But for everyday use, frozen concentrate is much more practical and economical for us and, I would think, for many other couples, individuals and families.

Of course, those disgusting orange crystals are pretty compact too, and require no refrigeration. Could we be segueing into a New Tang Dynasty?

Another thought: we used to have a milkman and a breadman. Maybe we could also have a juice man? Or woman? Or maybe even a drone?

Let's hope that either Minute Maid eventually sees the error of its ways, or that other companies step in to fill the gap.