Trader Joe's Flash Pasteurized Apple Juice

I wish I had a better sensory memory. It fails me again and again. On several occasions while writing this blog, I have compared Product B to my memory of Product A, then later compared A and B side by side. Almost every time, these two processes reach different conclusions, because I just can't call to mind with vividness or specificity a recollection of what something tasted like when I ate it weeks or months before.

It happened again with this juice.

I went to Trader Joe's intending to buy the Honey Crisp Apple Cider that I liked last year. I had been reminded of it by this glowing, 5-star review at the "Trader Joe's 365" blog. But then I came across this "flash pasteurized" apple juice in the refrigerated case first, and the temptation to try something new beat out my desire to renew an old pleasure.

I drank a few ounces of it every morning for a few days and was really liking it. I was thinking that it was a serious contender to displace the HCAC as my all-time favorite apple juice. Quite obviously, this required a face-to-face showdown. So back to the store I went, and last night with my weekly dinner with Nina, I poured us side-by-side glasses of HCAC and flash-pasteurized.

I had imagined this battle as the contest between roughly equal titans, like Ali versus Frazier. Godzilla versus King Kong. But it turned out to be a completely unfair, one-sided fight, more like Godzilla versus Bambi.

The flash-pasteurized is excellent apple juice; let there be no mistake about that. It's a far cry better than the clear, boring, too-sweet apple juice that you usually get in a typical grocery store. (And even from TJ's.) As I said, when I was just drinking it in isolation, my impression was that it was among the best apple juices I've ever had--and it is.

But put it next to the HCAC, and it pales. The HCAC is just more rich and pure, like what you would get if you took the trouble to juice apples in your own kitchen. In fact, last night's taste test leads me to conclude that, even though I praised the HCAC in my original review, I didn't give it enough love. I am now going back and updating that post to reflect my new judgment that it deserves to be on my Top Ten list. I think it is to other apple juices what TJ's Gravenstein applesauce is to ordinary applesauce: so far superior that when they're available, you'd be a fool to choose anything else.

My next TJ's trip, I'm going to pick up about three jugs of the HCAC so that I can still be enjoying it occasionally during the long months it's out of season and unavailable.

For another perspective on the flash-pasteurized, see this seven-product comparison.

Will I buy it again? 

If it's available all year, when HCAC isn't, then yes. But I think (don't quote me on this) that it's available only in autumn, like the HCAC. If so, then no--I would never choose it.


Nina's View

So, I'm not a huge fan of Honey Crisp apples. And yet, the Honey Crisp Cider is a winner precisely because it tastes exactly like an apple (albeit not my favorite variety). Not like apple juice from a jar, but like an actual apple. This is enough to make it stand way ahead of any random blend. Short of using your own juicer, this is about as close as you're going to get to essence-of-apple.

I really wish they made a Gravenstein apple juice, because I much prefer the character of the Gravenstein. Ya listening, TJ???