Trader Joe's grapefruit juices

I was pleased and intrigued by how the grapefruit juice I tried in yesterday's post was so much better than any I had purchased in a grocery store before. I wanted to try it in a direct test against other products. 

I went to the juice aisle of a standard grocery store, and could find only one item--the Ocean Spray "Ruby Red" pictured above. (It is of no small significance that they don't even use the word "grapefruit" in the name of the product.) 

At TJ's, I found three, including the superb "Grapefruit Sunset" reviewed yesterday, which costs $4.99. 

Trader Joe's 100% Pure Florida Grapefruit Juice Ruby Red comes in a carton and is found in the refrigerated section. Its list of ingredients is one long: "Pure Florida ruby red grapefruit juice." Like Grapefruit Sunset, it is pasteurized and not from concentrate. It appears that the only differences between the two products is that this one is not organically sourced, and is derived from ruby red grapefruit, instead of pink grapefruit. It costs $3.69. 

Trader Joe's Rio Red Grapefruit is, like Grapefruit Sunset, in a 64-ounce plastic jug, found in the non-refrigerated juice section. But that is their only similarity. Sadly, it's like so many other TJ's juice blends, with a base of grape and apple juice, and just enough of what should be the main ingredient to allow you to get some vague sense of its presence. Specifically, white grape juice concentrate is the first ingredient (after water for reconstitution), followed by red grapefruit juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, then flavorings and colorings. It costs $3.49. 

The Ocean Spray product does a little better than that, with reconstituted grapefruit juice as its first ingredient, followed by reconstituted grape juice, reconstituted apple juice, grapefruit pulp, and colorings and flavorings. I didn't keep the receipt from that store, so I can't tell you its cost. 

When Nina was here for dinner, I set up a testing procedure that allowed us to taste them with neither of us knowing which juice was which, but the numbers were as shown above. Here are the notes that Nina jotted down, which combine both of our observations: 

1. Insipid, sweet but uninteresting. Concoction doesn't taste very grapefruity.
2. Ruby red grapefruit flavor. Not too acidic. Not fresh squeezed.
3. Barely identifiable, intermittent bitterness.
4. Grapefruit, but sharp and a little bitter. Acid. Tastes pasteurized. Canned? 

There was absolutely no question that we both liked them in this order: #2, #4, #1, #3. Perhaps more importantly, the gap in quality between #4 and #1 was far larger than the gaps between #2 and #4, or between #1 and #3. Put another way, we would both willingly buy #2 and #4, but would not want to bring home #1 or #3. 

#2, the Grapefruit Sunset, was head and shoulders above the others, but #4, the TJ's 100% Pure, was a decent second-best. Given its significantly lower cost, I might choose it more often than Sunset. 

Since the taste test, I've been drinking all of them in kind of random order, a few ounces at a time. Doing so has reinforced the initial impressions from the blind testing. I'm happy with both the Sunset and 100% Pure. I can stand the other two, but they don't make me feel like I'm drinking real juice, and the overall impression is one of true mediocrity. 

Will I buy it again? 

Yes to both of the real juices, no to both of the sad blends.