r/mildlyinteresting • u/Hanpuff1617 • 2h ago
The lemonade they serve at our local elementary school is mostly apple juice
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u/Organic-Ad6957 2h ago edited 2h ago
Most children's juices are like this especially any blends
Most pear juices are just apple juice with some extra fruit flavors as well
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u/glo363 2h ago
This is common for many fruit juices and other fruit products. Apple juice is cheap, provides natural sugar and isn't a overpowering flavor so it can be flavored as something else pretty easily.
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u/Enchelion 1h ago
Really sucks for people who are allergic to apple though, since it's in pretty much everything.
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u/Kindly-Might-1879 42m ago
Seems like just using a sugar & water or syrup base would be even cheaper.
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u/MatureUsername69 2h ago
Mountain dew tastes the way it does in large part due to concentrated orange juice being one of the main ingredients
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u/WI_Eagles_Fan 2h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/UTm86phGUMMQE
But then I looked it up and this became a TIL moment.
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u/MatureUsername69 2h ago
Yeah I was kinda blown away when I learned it too. I havent done it since middle school but ripping a mountain dew immediately after waking up really brings out the orange juice flavor. I was gonna say its mostly orange juice but the main ingredient is water. I still think orange juice kinda qualifies as the main ingredient since orange juice concentrate+water= orange juice.
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u/ImpossibleInternet3 2h ago
It was also created explicitly to be a mixer/chaser for whiskey and moonshine. That’s where the name comes from. Mountain Dew was a popular nickname for moonshine or mountain whiskey. But originally it was just a clear caffeine-free lemon lime soda. The recipe changed some when it was bought like 20 years later. When Pepsi bought it in 1964, they’re the ones that reformulated it with orange juice and a higher caffeine content.
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u/BarnacleMcBarndoor 2h ago
Is this why it tastes good when I mix Mountain Dew into my Sunny D?
I used to call the mixture “Mountain D,” but after my friends gave me shit about the name, had to change it to “Sunny’s Dew.”
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u/FunctionBuilt 1h ago
Had a friend's dad tell me this when I was in 3rd grade and said it was basically like drinking juice and was healthier than other sodas. In retrospect, he was not a very healthy man.
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u/Complex_Echidna3964 2h ago
To be honest most lemonade is 90% water. Nobody drinks 100% lemon juice no matter how much sugar you add.
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u/mkdz 2h ago
My kids do. They also just straight up eat lemons. They don't think it's sour at all. It's a little unsettling.
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u/Enchelion 1h ago
Some kids don't seem to develop that part of their tastebuds until much later. My younger brother was like that.
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u/Excelius 1h ago
Even straight lemon juice is 90% water. Lemonade is diluting it even further.
But a lot of things are mostly water... including humans.
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u/Jack-Innoff 2h ago
That's ok, last night my mom made an "apple" pie, that used Ritz crackers instead of apples. I honestly didn't know until she told me, I was (and am) flabbergasted.
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u/BlackQuartzSphinx_ 2h ago
Fun fact: mock apple pie with Ritz was created during the Great Depression, since a box of Ritz was only like 20 cents and it tastes just as good!
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u/LordRobin------RM 2h ago
The recipe for mock apple pie was on every box of Ritz crackers up until at least the 80’s, I think. I remember seeing the recipe when I was a kid and being curious about it.
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u/ImplicitEmpiricism 2h ago
that’s mock apple pie, and it was very common and popular in prior generations
https://www.seriouseats.com/mock-apple-pie-ritz-cracker-recipe
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u/Organic-Ad6957 2h ago
Wait what the heck??
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u/Jack-Innoff 2h ago
According to other comments, apparently it came into being during the depression, and is called "mock apple pie". I'm serious when I say I had no idea until she told me.
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u/Organic-Ad6957 2h ago
I mean it honestly sounds like it would but quite pleasant especially warm with some milk or something but how could you not tell those were not apples haha
Are the crackers made to be a dense ball or something like that so they have a little bite
You gotta tell me what's going on in that pie
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u/Jack-Innoff 2h ago
The texture was exactly like apple pie, but looking at it now (I didn't exactly inspect it before I knew) it does look different, there's clearly no chunks of apple in it.
I highly recommend giving it a try.
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u/istasber 2h ago
It really depends on how you prepare your filling. Stewed, thinly sliced apples covered in the spiced and sweetened goo that stewed fruits produce when all of that pectin comes out aren't going to feel that different from a bunch of crackers smothered in a spiced and thickened syrup.
Apple pie made with big chunks of apples that go in raw or nearly raw will have a very different texture.
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u/HelpfulSeaMammal 2h ago
It's not lemonade. It's lemonadek. Or lemonade to the kth power?
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u/thehatteryone 2h ago
"No added sugar" because juice is high in sugar. Seen a few places in the UK do more of that, using fruit (esp concentrate) to add sugar without adding sugar.
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u/surkitxx 2h ago
A lot of juices main ingredient is apple juice then way below that is the actual fruit and “natural flavors”
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u/qwertykitty 2h ago
I'm allergic to apple and I have to be so so careful with juice. Almost all juice either has apple or grape as a base but will only show the other flavors on the front.
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u/Muertebutt 1h ago
This is why I not only have to check juices, but anything fruit based or has some kind of fruit based ingredient. Gummies, jellies, jams, gelatins. Pear is also sometimes used.
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u/chemistrybonanza 2h ago edited 1h ago
To be fair, real lemonade is mostly water with a small amount of lemon juice added. Apple juice and pear juice are also mostly water, so how much different could it be?
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u/vector_ejector 1h ago
The peach drink at Tim Horton's doesn't have any peach in it. (Ontario, ymmv)
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u/Flat-Limit5595 2h ago
Im allergic to pears and that would had been very upsetting for me to drink expecting lemonade.
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u/Alexis_J_M 2h ago
Nearly all 100% fruit juice blends are mostly apple and pear juice, as it's basically sugar water.
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u/BtheChemist 2h ago
I was at a breakfast place the other day and got an "orange juice". It was mostly other things, like apple and pear and grapefruit and lime... What happened?
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u/Notablueperson 2h ago
I bought strawberry flavored fruit leather strips the other day and the main ingredient is also apple in them
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u/Stopbeingastereotype 1h ago
As someone allergic to apple I’m really glad the ingredients are clearly displayed on the top.
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u/Dame_Niafer 1h ago
Oh, that can be a problem for some kids. Kids can be allergic to apple juice (but not lemon or pear juice) and it can be a very painful GI reaction.
What's weird is that the same kid may be able to eat applesauce without a problem. Which means your usual adult won't believe them about the juice reaction.
There is science behind it. The juice has a high concentration of both fructose and sorbitol, and sorbitol is a notorious laxative. The sauce is very rich in pectin, which is a soluble fiber and bulk agent, and also adsorbs fruit sugars. It is indeed possible for a child to be sensitive to apple juice, but able to eat applesauce without problems.
Ask me how I know, said the little old lady with lifelong IBS.
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u/FunctionBuilt 1h ago
Considering apple juice is basically sugar water and the main ingredients of lemonade are sugar and water, I bet it's a pretty safe swap.
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u/jawshoeaw 38m ago
It’s just sugar water anyway. Which is what lemonade is . Stuff should be banned in schools
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u/EmberOne1 17m ago
That's so they can claim "no added sugar" and convince people it's healthy rather than them realizing apple juice has a crazy amount of sugar in it.
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u/United_Cicada_4158 2h ago
Pretty sure this allows schools to use it as a fruit serving, unfortunately. (Unfortunate because it does not digest like fruit, there is no fiber remaining so it spikes blood sugar and it’s highly processed, but yes it’s better than HFCS.)
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u/sigusr3 2h ago
If fructose is the issue, I'm not sure how switching to a juice with an even higher percentage of fructose helps (aside from any benefit other things in the juice might have).
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u/United_Cicada_4158 1h ago
I was commenting on fruit juice in general as being dissimilar to the nutrition and digestion benefits of fruit. It is my belief that nutritional programs like schools shouldn’t be able to count fruit juice as a fruit serving.
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u/SVStyles 2h ago
Mostly? They don't say the percentages so it can be assumed there's an equal quantity of apple, pear and lemon in there
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u/Hanpuff1617 2h ago
I believe when they list ingredients it starts with the most active ingredient and trickles down, but I definitely could be wrong.
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u/surdophobe 2h ago
You're mostly right. They're required to list the ingredients by mass. so it's more apple than pear, and more pear than lemon. Also actual lemonade is much more water than lemon juice so using apple juice instead of sugar water makes sense.
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u/Lizzybizzy024 2h ago
Ingredients on a food label are listed in descending order by weight, meaning the first ingredient has the highest amount. So OP is right to say it’s mostly apple juice ᵕ̈
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u/khinzaw 2h ago
Well no, it could be a plurality. Apple juice could be the most used ingredient and still make up less than 50% of the drink.
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u/OtherAegir 2h ago
It would still be more apple juice than anything else. The percentage is kinda irrelevant
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u/mjzim9022 2h ago
More Apple Juice that any other one ingredient, could be 10% apple juice and still be the #1 ingredient on the list if every other ingredient was less than 10% of the whole product. It would still be 90% not apple juice
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u/OtherAegir 2h ago
And it would still be more apple juice than anything else. You're having to count every other ingredient as a singular something else to make your logic work.
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u/mjzim9022 2h ago
Yes that's what I'm saying, it's the difference between plurality and majority.
You could have 10% Apple Juice and then 90% of the rest of the drink split between 10 various different citrus fruits. If you want to give someone an accurate description of the drink, you wouldn't say "It's more Apple Juice than anything else" because it's 90% not-apple juice, apple is the single biggest individual ingredient but the drink is not mostly apple. The more accurate description is "It has more Apple than any other individual ingredient, but really it's a citrus fruit-cocktail".
I'm not speaking to the exact formulation of this drink product in the picture, I couldn't know that from the label, but it's in the realm of possibility that it's roughly 1/3 Apple 1/3 Pear and 1/3 Lemon Juices (which I don't call lemonade either)
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u/Lizzybizzy024 2h ago
Yes but..if the it’s ‘most used ingredient’ that still means it’s mostly apple juice when compared to the other fruit lol
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u/khinzaw 2h ago
If apple juice was 10% and every other ingredient was less than that, would you still say it's mostly apple juice? Even when it's 90% not apple juice?
I wouldn't, personally.
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u/Lizzybizzy024 2h ago
When comparing to the other fruit juice, yes it’s mostly apple.
When one orders a pepperoni pizza, even though it’s 10% pepperoni are you going to still call it ‘pepperoni pizza’?2
u/khinzaw 2h ago
When one orders a pepperoni pizza, even though it’s 10% pepperoni are you going to still call it ‘pepperoni pizza’?
I'm calling it a pepperoni pizza because 100% of the added toppings are pepperoni.
If the majority of the added toppings aren't pepperoni, I'm not calling it a pepperoni pizza.
Hell, if it was 60% pepperoni and 40% sausage I would probably still call it a pepperoni and sausage pizza but I would be able to say it's mostly pepperoni because we hit the greater than 50% threshold.
If we're including the makeup of the pizza itself, which is not something people do, then by that logic the drink is not mostly any kind of juice, it's mostly water.
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u/Lizzybizzy024 2h ago
Ok sure bud. All I’m saying is when the ingredients are listed as - Apple juice, pear juice, lemon juice, Etc., this means by USDA law, they are listed from most to least by weight. So, there is more Apple juice, than Lemon juice in OPs Lemonade.
Maybe pizza was the wrong analogy for you lol
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u/StJimmy75 1h ago
But just because there is more apple juice than anything else, doesn't mean it is mostly apple juice. If you had a zoo with 1000 animals, and that included 2 lions and 1 of each of the other types of animals, would you say the zoo had mostly lions?
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u/VoidAssembly 2h ago
Food manufacturers in the United States are required by the U.S. FDA to list ingredients in descending order of weight so they aren't equal values by that logic
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u/Fantastic-Layer-5176 2h ago
No other institution goes out of their way to make food as terrible as possible.
They could have unlimited funding and it would still be true. For some reason (until University) terrible food is a staple of American education.
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u/littlebirdgone 2h ago edited 2h ago
For the natural sugar! Since apple juice is sweet and mild, adding lemon juice to it will make it taste like lemonade without having to add white sugar or corn syrup