Top ten things to look for when buying a fresh fruit juice pack

Only of late was I enticed into taking the quencher fresh fruit juice and guess what! Times have changed and so has the drink. Probably because they have since mastered the art of making fresh juices and not adding to many chemicals of preservatin ( on a lighter note) Anyway, they are almost hitting a mark of being among my favorite drinks. What do I look for in a packed fresh fruit juice? 1: Expiry date: If the pack says expiry after one year, be very careful, this has preservatives added if not too much sugar. Sugar actually acts as a preservative anyway.Out of all the brands, picana is the only drink that somehow will indicate spoillage upon opening it up and keeping it at room temperature! 2: Sugar level something that you can quickly taste using the organoleptic ( toungue) test. If too much that it causes irritation then it is a suspect drink 3: Right flavor: Flavor can be anything, but the right flavor is something, if its indicated tropical mix, one should be able to figure out through tasting, the various fruit flavors that the juice carries as per pack pictures and/ or the list of the fruits that the pack claims to have 4: Aroma: Fruits are supposed to have a great aroma, sweet smelling, perhaps due to the level of sugar contained in each, if it emits a foul smells or an aroma that is suspect and does not really tell you which fruit it is, then do not even attempt to be a repeat customer 5: Taste : Should be appealing, taste and flavor are two totally different things, flavor relating more to the type of fruit flavour that the juice has been made of while taste is how the juice will feel on the toungue either bitter, sweet, flat only to mention but a few 6: Package: Give the right colors, appealing to the eye and I will be your customers...out of all the packs, Del Monte is well presented followed by pick n peel, it makes you get excited even before you taste the inner contents. Something catchy for the eye! 7: Consistency: Let me taste the same sugar levels in the juice for the rest of it marketable life but alert me when you increase or lower it, just like milk, you can chose low fat, skimmed, unskimmed. Most companies will only make the juice sweeter by adding too much sugar, its not always the sweetness that sells the brand, ask the makers of Yatta Grape juice, which by the way, is an excellent substitute for some of the bad wines we have in the markets 8:Handling: This I will mostly refer to the part where one opens up the pack ready to drink. As much as most companies have moved from the tearing of the pack to the fitting cap, the inner aluminum foil is always a mess with some products. They stick them on too tight such that you may need a sharp object or fork to pierce the pack for the contents to be emptied. On the other hand, others are well fixed can be pulled out but hey, watch out the content may spill on you as they have not given the allowance of the fluid and its pack! Anyway, the cap must easy to open and foil easy to tear/ peal off. Lets not have the Dasani water bottle stunt where at times, you cant even open the bottle 9: Drinkability: This is mostly linked to the above as sometimes you may be forced to buy the pack and since its without a straw you have to drink it straight from the pack! The mouth of the pack should allow you to empty the contents easily into your mouth. Just a question, why is thay only small packs have straws? They should know that some of us are field people eh? 10: Price: Its always the last thing on my mind when I want quality products but its always that cheap is expensive. I love twist and splash not just because they are well priced but they have been constistent in terms of flavor and taste...though the packaging could do with a bit of upgrading. Masafi on the other hand, is excellent, that drink can cure your flu when you take it, an indication of high levels of Vitamin C which are great for those with flu and common colds but is higly priced. I would take it once in while, given a choice, I would buy it every other day!! Try out the New Daima range of fresh fruit juices...have an interesting taste too...and I love the way they have maintained the brand logo on all of their product, water, milk and now juice!