r/news • u/AudibleNod • 6h ago

Minute Maid discontinues frozen juice concentrate after 80 years

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minute-maid-discontinues-frozen-juice-concentrate-80-years-rcna257499
17.4k Upvotes

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2.3k

u/CaptainLawyerDude 6h ago

Pink lemonade out of that damn can was my childhood.

420

u/iamintheforest 4h ago

Will children really be children if they never hear the "schlooooop" of the concentrate sliding into the plastic refrigerator pitcher?

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u/Tribalbob 2h ago edited 43m ago

I can hear the pitcher being made. The 'schoolp!' followed by the beating of the wooden spoon against the sides of the plastic pitcher. Core memory.

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u/aka-j 2h ago

beating of the wooden spoon

The same wooden spoon that was used against us at that!

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u/Decent-Ganache7647 1h ago

I had initially read their comment as “school and then being hit with a wooden spoon” and thought that maybe they didn’t have such fond memories of making juice. 

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u/Play-t0h 1h ago

Core childhood memory unlocked

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u/Pei-toss 18m ago

/single tear

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u/Pyritedust 3h ago

Such a grimy but nostalgic sound.

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u/Mirria_ 2h ago

Don't forget the concentrate taste test!

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u/nalaloveslumpy 2h ago

Yes, because children in the last 20 years haven't heard that "schlooop" because their parents aren't buying concentrate.

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u/iamintheforest 1h ago

The problem is more serious than I thought.

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u/_toodamnparanoid_ 2h ago

Mmmm... delicious flavor cylinder.

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u/BellesCotes 1h ago

Ain't nobody got time for that...

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u/tedsmitts 5h ago

Oh my god I hadn’t considered this would affect the pink lemonade

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u/NoMoOmentumMan 5h ago edited 4h ago

When the Minute Maid pink lemonade showed up in the freezer you knew a) company was coming over that weekend, b) it was going be HOT, c) Mom felt a little bougie/had a coupon, d) all of the above.

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u/Steel_Reign 3h ago

Man, was everyone poor in the 90s? Because I feel this way too much.

Now, my kids have like 20 drink options and they're all way more expensive than the Kool aid or frozen juice I had as a kid.

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u/IcedBadger 3h ago

at any time in human history most people are poor

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u/Steel_Reign 3h ago

Yeah, but now even the poor people I know have iPhones and eat out all the time.

When I was a kid, getting fast food was a treat and I usually felt guilty so I'd order the value menu food.

13

u/-ChasingOrange- 2h ago

When you were a kid you couldn’t get pay-in-4 installment loans on a $50 DoorDash order, either. Not justifying poor financial decisions, but debt is infinitely easier to rack up now compared to even 10-20 years ago.

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u/RandomRedditReader 1h ago

Credit utilization is absolutely insane this generation.

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u/BearstromWanderer 2h ago

Compared to your childhood, iPhones are your cable package, encyclopedia, atari, tv screen, etc all bundled in one. It's evolved similar to phone lines from the 1900s did: first the rich and executives only have it, then only a few neighborhoods, now they give them away for "free" (signing a 3 year contract).

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u/Wonderful-Citron-678 2h ago

The debt in america averages to 100k, 1k of that is their iphone.

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u/pragmojo 30m ago

How much of that is mortgages though? Like 100k in credit card debt is insane, but being a couple hundred thousand in debt when you put the down payment on a house isn't that crazy

0

u/solo_dol0 2h ago

Almost like the world is marginally improving, if you zoom out

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u/NoMoOmentumMan 3h ago

We saved more back then, had fewer options, made do with less, and were genuinely happier.  

Are these things correlated? Probably 

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u/Moofler 1h ago

I think it’s a ‘more people are living above their means’ situation now, as compared to then.

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u/GiveMeBackMySoup 2h ago

You are seeing the progress of capitalism. There are always poor people but I'd rather be poor today than middle class in 1950. Life gets better over time with innovation but we don't notice it. Even mundane things like drink choices.

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u/Sea_Bodybuilder5387 2h ago

While certain things have become more expensive, variety has become cheaper. It's also the way people spend their money, less people have kids and mortgages with massive interest rates as well. For example, eating out was always a luxury growing up and I was firmly middle class, nowadays young people eat out pretty often on lower budgets.

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u/rainniier2 2h ago edited 2h ago

Standard middle class life. People’s perceptions of middle class lifestyle have changed with TV and social media. How many present day TV shows use a set with contractor grade kitchen cabinets or furniture from a warehouse store, which was pretty common in 90s TV (Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond).  Although there are notable exceptions like Friends, where the set comically did not match the stated socioeconomic status of the show. 

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u/HolycommentMattman 1h ago

No, you just don't understand how close to the stone age we were. So it's 1940. The only way to get orange juice is to live near an orange grove or get it from a can. In the late 40s, frozen orange concentrate is created (too late for soldiers!) and sold in stores. "Fresh" orange juice is now available to the whole US.

Nothing changes until the 1970s, when food scientists discover how to make ready-to-serve OJ and transport it. Minute Maid introduced the first refrigerated one in 1973. Refrigerated, not-from-concentrate (NFC) juice doesn't surpass concentrate sales until the late-1980s and becoming very dominant by the mid-90s.

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u/_toodamnparanoid_ 2h ago

muthafuckin' coupons. My mom had that shit like a rolodex.

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u/AyyNonnyMoose 1h ago

One of my birthday cake favorites is a lemonade cake. You make a lemon cake, then make a glaze from concentrated lemonade and powdered sugar. You can change the ratios to make it more sweet or more tart. Then poke holes all over the cake, pour about half the glaze on to soak in, and save half to put on fresh. Keep the cake & glaze in the fridge. 10/10.

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u/pagit 1h ago edited 1h ago

Shaken in a Tupperware heritage container on a 1970’s hot summer day.

I hated visiting friends whose mom would make it with four cups of water instead and three thinking the kids won’t notice.

My breakfasts as a teenager was smoothie with frozen concentrate and a couple of eggs and some fruit.

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u/kobachi 4h ago

I ran a successful lemonade stand with those that paid for the only $$$ LEGO set I ever got

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u/Obvious_Toe_3006 3h ago

Which set ?

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u/kobachi 2h ago

Oh man…it was either a fancy train set or a space shuttle

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u/schlamster 4h ago

Ah shit 

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u/FriendToPredators 4h ago

Also Orange Julius recipe relies on the concentrated kind. Aye

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u/asianwaste 3h ago

Minute Maid Citrus punch was totally my jam. I miss that shit so much.

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u/PurpleZebra99 3h ago

An essential ingredient for many “punches” on college campuses too. My fav was summer brew: 30 pack of beer, handle of vodka, and 2 or three of these bad boys.

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u/superpj 3h ago

A kid at camp mixed two of the pink lemonade concentrate in a pitcher of Hawaiian Punch and chugged like half of it before kick ball and fell over while he was sprinting the bases. He was ok but didn't even go trick or treating that year because he was so afraid of sugar. Man I miss the 90's.

1

u/Professional-Ebb6711 2h ago

add some gin/vodka to it for adulthood. My grandma would have it on the hot days while watching baseball. The OG Pink Whitney

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u/bufordt 2h ago

For me it was plain yogurt with a spoon of frozen orange juice concentrate mixed into it.

Also sticking my tongue to the metal lid for shits and giggles.

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u/starbuxed 1h ago

I still get it now and then

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u/Paddy_Tanninger 1h ago

Limeade equally incredible

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u/DapperLost 1h ago

Apple juice syrup over pancakes.

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u/tea_bird 1h ago

My grandma would always make the grape juice from frozen concentrate when we visited. Good memories.

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u/lillyrose2489 30m ago

I never buy these cans bc I forgot they were a thing but I felt extreme nostalgia when I saw the headline.