Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Review: Sun Shower Nectarine Juices
Nectarine juice blends seemed unusual enough that I wanted to give them a shot, so in came the PR-arranged samples of Sun Shower nectarine juice and juice blends from NBI Juiceworks. And, overall, I liked the taste, but I would take strong exception with the way they position the drinks.
More on that in a minute, but let's jump into the taste test of three varieties: one straight nectarine, a nectarine-mango mix, and nectarines blended with berries. The combination juices got the highest ratings from our in-house panel of adults and expert-drinking teenagers. Flavors were good and there was just the right mouth feel of viscosity. The plain nectarine also had a good taste, but was definitely on the tart side - not unpleasantly so, though it might kick in a mild shock if you were expecting something else.
Now for the grousing. First, I get really tired of 12-ounce versions of drinks, obviously bottled for consumption by one person, as having, in this case, 1.5 servings. The press materials may brag "Only 93 calories per 8 ounce serving," but the bottle has 139.5 calories.
My greater irritation lies with the technically-correct claim that the products are 100% juice - because, if you round and ignore minute amounts of other things, they are. But as the company claims "100% Juice - No added sugar or preservatives" in the press materials, it neglects to add, "Oh, but we do add sucralose to sweeten things, because the nectarines can be sour."
Sucralose is the common name for the product Splenda, and is an artificial sweetener about 600 percent sweeter than sugar. On the company's own web site, it addresses the question of "Why sucralose?" The answer? Nectarines vary in sweetness:
There were other things I disliked in the web site's attempt to spin the sucralose. Approved by the FDA to be used in juice? Well, of course it was, otherwise this company couldn't use it. Excellent safety profile? Just what does that mean? I'm not knocking the use of sucralose or other artificial sweeteners - I even had nice things to say about Zsweet. But, frankly, I was very disappointed. Personally, I'd rather pay the price in calories for the real sweetener and not let the manufacturer try to let me think I'm getting away with something for nothing. Particularly when the company is trying to create an impression of concern for health.
More on that in a minute, but let's jump into the taste test of three varieties: one straight nectarine, a nectarine-mango mix, and nectarines blended with berries. The combination juices got the highest ratings from our in-house panel of adults and expert-drinking teenagers. Flavors were good and there was just the right mouth feel of viscosity. The plain nectarine also had a good taste, but was definitely on the tart side - not unpleasantly so, though it might kick in a mild shock if you were expecting something else.
Now for the grousing. First, I get really tired of 12-ounce versions of drinks, obviously bottled for consumption by one person, as having, in this case, 1.5 servings. The press materials may brag "Only 93 calories per 8 ounce serving," but the bottle has 139.5 calories.
My greater irritation lies with the technically-correct claim that the products are 100% juice - because, if you round and ignore minute amounts of other things, they are. But as the company claims "100% Juice - No added sugar or preservatives" in the press materials, it neglects to add, "Oh, but we do add sucralose to sweeten things, because the nectarines can be sour."
Sucralose is the common name for the product Splenda, and is an artificial sweetener about 600 percent sweeter than sugar. On the company's own web site, it addresses the question of "Why sucralose?" The answer? Nectarines vary in sweetness:
By adding sucralose, NBI JuiceWorks™ is able to balance the sweetness of our juices (called the acid/brix ratio) to ensure each bottle has the consistent great taste consumers expect.Read that as, "If people tasted what these fruit were like on their own, their mouths would turn inside out and that would be bad for business. And because we want to say 100 percent juice, we can't add sugar or honey, because the amounts would become some percentage of the final mix and the calorie content would go up." That is, their marketing of the juice would suffer, because on the bottle itself it makes very visible the words "no added sugar or preservatives" and squeezes the sucralose mention into the government-mandated label. If it did mention the substance, people might wonder why it still has almost 140 calories per 12-ounce bottle.
There were other things I disliked in the web site's attempt to spin the sucralose. Approved by the FDA to be used in juice? Well, of course it was, otherwise this company couldn't use it. Excellent safety profile? Just what does that mean? I'm not knocking the use of sucralose or other artificial sweeteners - I even had nice things to say about Zsweet. But, frankly, I was very disappointed. Personally, I'd rather pay the price in calories for the real sweetener and not let the manufacturer try to let me think I'm getting away with something for nothing. Particularly when the company is trying to create an impression of concern for health.
Labels: berries, fruit, juice, mango, NBI Juiceworks, nectarine, sucralose, Sun Shower
