Categories: Food & Wine

Minute Maid Vs Tropicana: The Search for the Best Orange Juice

Minute Maid orange juice is a Coca Cola product. Tropicana is a Pepsi product. I’ve seen the Pepsi challenge where someone gives two cups and you have to pick which one tastes better. If you pick Pepsi then you pass the Pepsi Challenge. Pick either soft drink and you still get a key chain, a coupon for a free Pepsi, or some other small gift. How come I have not seen the Tropicana challenge? Maybe I need to start one with the writing of this article. We’ll go international to cafes, restaurants, diners, B&Bs;, everywhere that serves breakfast. We can take the labels off of the containers and let fruit juice enthusiasts decide what tastes better, Tropicana or Minute Maid orange juice.

That may be taking it to the extreme. Companies these days with their cost cutting accounting methods cannot expend the resources to run a marketing campaign for the Tropicana challenge. The orange market was hit by a harsh winter in 2006 so the price of oranges will be higher. Thus the price of orange juice shall be higher according to news reports from Tropicana. Personally, I am a fan of Florida’s Natural Orange Juice. But the stores I shop at don’t have that brand. They have Sunny D, generic store brand juice, Minute Maid and Tropicana. If I make the drive downtown to Whole Foods, I can buy the naked juice for 20 cents an ounce. That makes Bolthouse Farms look cheap at about 9.3 cents per ounce. Odwalla also makes a good orange juice that costs more than fuel for my car (unless I purchased gas in Venezuela).

Most cost conscience consumers will just buy whichever brand is on sale. In a big grocery store, one can most likely find at least one brand of orange juice for sale on the shelf. Don’t all oranges come from the same place anyways? That is another story. How are the juices prepared. Are they from concentrate? How much sugar is in an eight ounce serving? Personally, I prefer the juice with the highest Vitamin C content as long as it is pulp free. So what did I buy?

I tried the Tropicana with the Antioxidant Advantage. It competes with the Minute Maid Vitamin C + E plus Zinc. They are both pretty tasty with that metallic after taste from the zinc in Minute Maid and the sodium selenite in Tropicana. But the Minute Maid that I thought was the easiest to swallow was the low acid because it was smoother. The same can be said for the Tropicana low acid juice. The Tropicana brand offers calcium + Vitamin D. The Minute Maid brand offers calcium + Vitamin D. They both have home style with lots of pulp. They both have a healthy heart orange juice rich in omega-3’s. Tropicana adds tilapia, sardine and anchovy to the healthy heart. Minute Maid adds plant sterols to its Heartwise line. They are really going in the same direction with regards to substitutability of orange juice. How come they are priced differently if they are the same?

Usually at the market I go to, Minute Maid is on sale. A 64 ounce container of Minute Maid Premium will retail for $2.79, but every other week it will be on sale for $2.00 Tropicana has a retail price of $3.29 but when Minute Maid is not on sale, a 64 ounce container of Tropicana Pure Premium is usually on sale for $2.00 When neither of those juices are on sale, it is probably the 96 ounce of which ever the store needs to get rid of some excess inventory. The retail price is $4.99, and the sale price is $3.50. Prices will vary depending on what market a person shops at.

Since both Minute Maid and Tropicana have the same varieties to offer, I would be satisfied buying both products. Whichever brand is on sale at the time of my purchase will be the ultimate tie breaker. If for some reason they are the same price per ounce, I will gladly take the Minute Maid C + E plus Zinc. Zinc deficiency may result in bad eyesight, taste, smell and memory. I can’t take that chance!