Breakfast is nothing without the right drink - its an essential part of the Sunday morning ritual. And Saturday for that matter. You spend ages labouring over the perfect breakfast and serve a cup of tea - no, no, no - this will not do. Maybe the one exception is a full English.
Reigning supreme above all other breakfast drinks is orange juice. I know, seriously - you can’t write that much about orange juice can you? Oh but you can. Oranges and juice from the oranges varies just as much any other drink like coffee. This will fly in the face of popular opinion and seem like nonsense to many people. Lots of places in the right latitude produce oranges and they are all very different, produced with different qualities for different uses. They do the same kind of thing with lots of food - like tomatoes for instance.
My first experience with proper orange juice was Florida where they produce massive quantities of it, but also later the med where I have literally picked citrus fruit straight from a tree and juiced it. I don’t really understand how the orange gets lost in translation here - in particular juice. We have oranges from Spain but nobody seems to juice them without mass producing and ruining them in the process. M&S do a fairly respectable freshly squeezed bottle and now supermarkets do as well - but Im always slightly suspect of the bottling process. They are always a bit sour - not terribly so, but enough for it to be still worthwhile doing it yourself. The producers have a lot of hoops to jump through so Im thinking they use some kind of low temp pasteurising process.
Juicing is the only way to get orange juice. Tropicana and other varieties in bottles and cartons are pasteurised as a minimum to extend their shelf life but almost certainly have sugar added and other stuff. Its a continuous trial to work out whether these drinks are actually good for you. An orange is always good for you, despite the sugar. It isn’t good for your teeth but there is a simple solution to that.
Key for oranges is the balance of acidity and sweetness. Too sweet and they don’t have the bite you want that cuts right through fatty foods like bacon and cheese. Too much acidity and they are unpleasant to drink. Might be good for cooking though. Some oranges are for juicing and drinking, some are for eating, and some are for cooking. You want obviously the juicing varieties. Sometimes small very sharp oranges are bundled up for this in the supermarkets. In my experience they are not ideal and loosely packed larger oranges make a better choice. This is because I think - conjecture here, that single oranges are more expensive and therefore less likely to be sold if they are not good, whereas you’re more likely to accept a not so good orange from a net bag hoping for better.
A particular favourite of mine are blood oranges - they have a very tangy, deeper flavour than ordinary oranges. They have a short season though and are difficult to get, mostly because the supermarkets rarely offer them. Growing season is December to April - winter in the Med. But they make great breakfast OJ.
The second you juice and orange it starts to collect microbes and airborne fungus on the surface which then filters down into the body of the liquid and turns it sour. Its meant to happen or we would be neck deep in unwanted organic waste. To keep your juice for as long as possible immediately cover it - with whatever. I use a plastic container with a lid. You can leave an orange juice on the table for twenty minutes and then store it in a fridge, and the next day it will be soured. It really makes all the difference - especially if you add other citrus fruit like grapefruit that is already really sour or passion fruit. This is why manufactures and producers pasteurise it, to prevent this from happening so it gets to you in the best state - but actually it totally destroys the flavour. And still they add loads of sugar to try and disguise the flavour. It just doesn’t work.
Blending juice is acceptable - and there are plenty of fruit that make a really nice drink. Grapefruit, passionfruit, pineapple and mango all make great additions. I actually keep meaning to try and recreate the commercial drink Oasis the orange variety. Its got orange, tangerine and lemon.
Diluting orange juice - is essential. Neat orange juice is drinkable but why do it when it tastes better diluted and you just waste loads of orange. My preference is 50 / 50 but I guess you could do less depending on personal taste. If you’re that much of a connoisseur you might consider bottled water. I find that tap water has a metallic taste because the the salts they put in it. Carbonated water is no good - its got high levels of acidity and when you drink it the bubbles tend to die down just enough for it to taste like its fermenting. You may as well drink a Tango.
Actually juicing the orange is in itself an art form. Personally I can go with just using your hands. Cut the orange in half and use your fingers to squeeze the pulp and collect. This is good for one or two. A quick Tequila sunrise. But for a steady flow you really need a proper juicer. Your standard orange juicer is also fine as a tool. I have a glass and a plastic one. But where is the fun in these methods. You really want a machine - and if you’re going to have a steady flow without knackering your hands its essential. Ive done another blog post on kitchen machines relating to exactly this here.
Then the great debate - smooth or bits. Personally I prefer smooth, but really the great debate should be about having OJ fresh and not what its texture is. Do you want godawful pasteurised within an inch of its life carton orange or a real drinking experience.
Finally serving - glass only. Plastic is not right - it absorbs the heat too easily and is a bit warm, no good for orange. Metal - its a bit weird but OK if you must. I like a nice tall glass so you can have ice in it when its hot. Temperature is essential. Not so much the juice itself as the oranges just sit on the side, but you don’t want to be drinking from a warm cup, its all wrong.
So thats it - you are now set to enjoy a fresh squeezed glass of orange juice done right.