What Is Concentrate Juice?

When I hear “juice concentrate” I immediately think that someone is talking to their juice and trying to get it to focus. But, as the doctors tell me, I am not a smart man. So what is a concentrate juice, really? Sometimes I’ll get some juice at the store and it’ll say “not from concentrate.” Is that supposed to be good? Or is it just a marketing gimmick? What is a concentrate juice? What does juice from concentrate mean? How is juice concentrate made? Is concentrate real juice? Let’s all concentrate real hard and find an answer!

What is concentrate juice?

As everyone who’s ever fallen off the roof of a five story building and landed in the back of a fruit truck knows, fruit is mostly made out of water. Water can make up to 90 percent of some fruit. Concentrate fruit is fruit with the water all sucked out. This process turns it into a thick syrup. You can buy the syrup and add water to make juice. You can also find ready to drink juice made from concentrate and frozen juice made from concentrate that just needs to defrost. 

Why the heck would someone suck the water out of fruit? Well, it makes it more shelf stable. So it can stay good through a long shipping process and stay on the shelf a lot longer. 

Is concentrate even real juice? 

It seems like some goofy, juice syrup sludge, but concentrate juice is still real juice. It’s made out of real fruits, they’ve just had the water sucked out. Some folks may consider fresh squeezed, non-concentrated juice to be better or “more real,” but the fact is concentrate is still real juice.

What does juice from concentrate mean?

When you go to the store for some juice and the label says “made from concentrate,” what does it mean? It means that the original fruit has had the water removed to turn it into a concentrate, then water was re-added. 

Juice concentrate can be pasteurized to stay fresher for a longer time. Non-concentrate juice can spoil very quickly. But sometimes the juice concentrate gets a lot of stuff added to it, like sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Some fruit flavor can be lost in the process, so additives are put in to restore it. Juice concentrate can also be fortified to add back some of the vitamins and minerals lost during the concentrate process. Some juice made from concentrate is better than others. Some are minimally processed but some have a high sugar content and tons of additives used for preservation. 

How is juice concentrate made?

So, how does that water get sucked out of the fruit to make concentrate? Is there just some guy in a factory sucking on fruit? If so, how do you get that job? No, of course that’s not how it’s done. There’s a couple of ways to make juice concentrate. Fruit can be heated at a low pressure to increase the boiling point and allow water to evaporate. Fruit can be frozen and the liquid separated that way. Or fruit can be pulverized into a pulp then evaporated to remove water. That way sounds the most fun.