What surprised you the most as you researched the history of orange juice?
The degree to which consumers have bought the myths that the industry has created about orange juice.
You say in your book that consumers act like robots when it comes to orange juice. What do you mean?
Orange-juice drinkers are misinformed about what it is they are drinking.
Flavor packs are made from the chemicals of orange essence and oil. Flavor and fragrance houses, the ones that make high end perfumes, break down orange essence and oils into their constituent chemicals and then reassemble the individual chemicals to resemble nothing found in nature. Ethyl butyrate is one of the chemicals found in high concentrations in the flavor packs added to orange juice sold in North American markets, because flavor engineers have discovered that it imparts a fragrance that Americans like, and associate with a freshly squeezed orange.
Right now the formula for fresh orange flavors is just about as secret as the formula for Coke.
My intent was not to get people to stop drinking orange juice but to realize what it is they’re drinking.