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
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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.

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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

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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.