Orange juice is an icon of the breakfast world. As a juice, it’s probably the single most famous, and as a beverage in general, it’s the type of thing that any restaurant open for breakfast is going to stock. We’re talking about a powerhouse of popularity, here.
But when you’re grabbing it to drink at home, what brand are you reaching for? There are a lot of choices at the grocery store, so I decided to grab 10 of the most popular brands I could find and rank them. Here are the best and worst store-bought orange juices you can find.
Best: GreenWise Orange Juice
This is great juice, folks. It’s light, fresh, and tart, but never too sour. It tastes like oranges, like real oranges. You won’t be upset to start the day off with this guy. As one of Publix supermarket’s store brands, we aren’t too surprised by the quality here.
2. Tropicana Orange Juice (No Pulp)
I didn’t expect such a gigantic, corporate brand to hit so hard. I figured Tropicana would be very middle-of-the-road, but I like this a lot. It’s got a ton of flavor, sweet and well-rounded. Sometimes pulp-free orange juice tastes like they extracted a lot of the body and the flavor along with the pulp, but not in Tropicana’s case.
3. Simply Orange (Pulp Free)
Simply has been in the game for a while now, and for some reason I always seem to forget how reliable it is. Something I love about Simply is that it never does that thing that bad orange juice does sometimes, where it coats your mouth with a thick, sweet film that leaves you scrambling for a glass of water. You know that thing. You’re free of it with Simply.
4. Coral Reef Juice Co. Orange Juice
Coral Reef doesn’t appear to make a pulp-free OJ, and while I prefer the smooth stuff, this is pretty great. I like the flavor a lot, despite the pulp. It’s not hard to believe that this is actually the product of a fresh-squeezed orange.
5. Publix Original Orange Juice
I have a darkness inside of me, and it’s that sometimes, a semi-watery, from-concentrate OJ appeals to me. This happens at occasional hotels and occasional McDonald’s. I don’t know what to say, besides: You came here for a list of somebody’s subjective orange juice preferences, and mine is that this particular Publix orange juice is pretty good.
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6. Florida’s Natural Orange Juice (No Pulp)
Florida’s Natural is usually more expensive than brands like Minute Maid, and after tasting it, I can see why. This is better, fresher, and far more full-bodied than other juices. I’d swirl this up with some champagne for brunch in a heartbeat.
7. Indian River Select Orange Juice
This is good, but odd. There’s something strangely bitter happening here, but I can tell it’s because these particular oranges are a little bit more bitter than the average orange. It’s almost like somebody put a dash of grapefruit flavor, but only at the finish. I don’t know. This is good, but the bitterness prevents me from wanting a lot of it.
8. Minute Maid Orange Juice (Pulp Free)
I used to buy Minute Maid all the time. I thought, “how much different could these orange juice brands be?” I’ve been living in eighth place, my friends. There’s nothing bad or wrong with Minute Maid, but there’s better stuff out there. Way better stuff.
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9. Natalie’s Orange Juice
This is pretty good, and clearly fresh, but there’s a funk that I just can’t place in here. Every single one of these juices says something on the packaging to the effect of “Just one ingredient! Oranges!!” so I have no way of figuring out why this is. This is undoubtedly the most small-batch of the OJs I tasted, but it’s just not doing it for me.
10. Uncle Matt’s Organic Orange Juice
When I was in college, we ordered some of those miracle berries that are supposed to make your taste buds freak out, as was the trend in the mid-2000s. In reality, all it did was make everything taste sweet. Orange juice was the “trippiest” example of this, especially when all you would taste is the sweet, sugary flavors of the juice without a trace of any of the tartness.
This is what Uncle Matt’s is like. It pains me to hit a smaller company that uses organic fruit with a last-place ranking, but what’s the deal with the texture here, Matty? This is a little tart, but the overwhelmingly thick, sweet flavor leaves my mouth frantically looking for something else to put in it.
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