Fresh Cold Pressed Juice vs Long-Life Cold Pressed Juice: The Complete Comparison Guide.

It turns out juice needs to be clarified. There are more types of juice than hats at a royal wedding!

It comes down to two types: fresh and long-life juice.

You may hear people calling long-life juice "normal juice", "processed juice", or "store-bought juice". There's no judgement here!

Don't be fooled. Long-life and fresh juice can both be "cold pressed".

Both fresh cold-pressed and long-life (processed) cold-pressed juice start their juicy little lives from the same pulp-like nest.

But don't let the words "cold pressed" on the label trick you.

What is cold-pressed juice?

Cold pressing is just how you extract the juice from the fruit. Nothing more.

While cold pressing is the best way to get the juice out of the fruit and veg whilst preserving all the goodness, what happens afterwards is essential.

Long-life cold pressed juice goes through intense processing and pasteurisation before being consumed, and regulations don't require companies to display this on the front of the bottle or the adverse nutritional effects.

This is why juices with extended shelf lives are frequently found in stores, with packaging that gives the impression of being healthy. They may have tag lines such as " 100% cold pressed juice!" or " Nothing else added," which gives the impression it's a healthy and nutritious juice. It's anything but "fresh".

To nerd out about cold pressed juice, read our blog here.

Long-life cold-pressed juice.

Let’s start with processed (aka long-life) juice.

What happens to cold pressed long-life juice after it’s made?

Long-life juice goes through various stages of processing before it can be bottled and prepared for consumption.

Let's dive in!

Preservatives, dilution and stabilisers.

Once the juice has been made, the juice can often be diluted with water and have preservatives, colour stabilisers, and or flavourings added.

Not all long-life juices have preservatives added, but they all go through the next step… Pasteurisation.

What is pasteurisation?

Long-life cold pressed juice undergoes pasteurisation, a vital process that extends the juice shelf life by reducing bacteria and enzymes. The two popular methods used for pasteurisation are High-Pressure Processing (HPP) and heat pasteurisation. HPP involves subjecting the juice to intense pressure, effectively eliminating many of the microorganisms. Heat pasteurisation, on the other hand, utilises high temperatures to achieve the same result. This may be displayed on packaging as “flash pasteurisation”.

So there you have it, pressure or heat.

However, it's important to note that pasteurisation, while ensuring shelf life longevity, can have health drawbacks.

The downsides to cold-pressed juice pasteurisation.

One 2023 study¹ by Julina Mandha found that the vitamin C in Watermelon juice was totally undetectable after just 10 minutes of heat pasteurisation (flash pasteurisation).

Let's explore some of the downsides of pasteurised long-life cold pressed juices.

Decreased nutritional Value:

- Heat pasteurisation can lead to a reduction in the nutritional value of the juice.

- Some heat-sensitive vitamins and enzymes may be degraded during the process.

- High-Pressure Processing (HPP) can also cause a loss of certain nutrients, enzymes and antioxidants.

- See nutritional study reference at the bottom of this blog.

Diminished taste:

- Pasteurisation, especially heat pasteurisation, can affect juice's natural flavours and taste vibrancy. Often the juice can taste very tart or have an odd aftertaste. OJ suffers from this the most.

- Exposure to high temperatures or pressure can alter the delicate balance of flavours.

Altered texture:

- The process may cause a minor thickening or separation of the juice, affecting its overall mouthfeel. It can have a syrupy-like texture. Remember taking Calpol as a kid? Similar to that!

Fresh cold-pressed juice.

Let's now dig into the fresh stuff. This is the type of juice we make at Squished Juice HQ!

What happens to fresh cold-pressed juice after it's made?

Here at Squished Juice, we're obviously biased because we only make fresh cold-pressed juice. We claim it to be the very best in all the land!

This is the process: Cold pressed, bottled and delivered. Bob's your uncle.

Here’s a step-by-step rundown:

Step 1: Squeeze that pulp, baby!

Our juice is cold pressed and immediately poured into glass bottles. We make the juice fresh to order, ensuring maximum freshness, rich nutritional value, gorgeous flavour and optimal shelf life.

Quality and Freshness: Small-batch production allows for better quality control and ensures that each bottle of juice is fresh. By producing smaller quantities, we can closely monitor the ingredients, maintain their integrity, and minimise oxidation and nutrient loss. It's the Squished way.

Step 2: Hand-poured into glass bottles.

That beautiful flavoursome cold pressed juice is hand poured into glass bottles by our team straight off the press.

Here's why we bottle our fresh juice immediately (for juice nerds only):

1. Retaining Nutrient Content: Cold-pressed juices are known for their high nutritional value, as they contain more vitamins, minerals, and enzymes than juices produced using other methods. However, air, light, and heat exposure can lead to nutrient degradation (boo). Having our Squished Juice team bottle the juice immediately after pressing, we reduce the contact with oxygen, preserving the nutrients and ensuring a more wholesome product for our wholesale stockists. Yay!

2. Minimising Oxidation: Oxidation occurs when the juice comes into contact with air (you know, the stuff we usually breathe?), causing the breakdown of those nourishing nutrients and enzymes and the loss of vibrant colours and that beautiful taste. Bottling the juice faster than the speed of light helps minimise the exposure to oxygen, reducing oxidation and preserving the juice's freshness, taste, and visual appeal. People buy with their eyes, so we need those natural juice colours popping!

3. Extending Shelf Life: Fresh cold-pressed juices (like ours), especially those made without pasteurisation or preservatives, have a relatively short shelf life due to the presence of enzymes, bacteria, and natural spoilage processes. By bottling the juice immediately, we can maximise the available shelf life and provide our wholesale customers with a lovely product that maintains its quality and taste for a more extended period.

4. Food Safety: When dealing with raw juice, it's crucial to prioritise food safety. Bottling the juice immediately after pressing reduces the risk of bacterial growth and contamination. It minimises potential pathogens' time to multiply, ensuring a safer product for consumers.

5. Consistency: Bottling the juice immediately after pressing helps maintain consistency in taste, texture, and colour across different batches. Delaying the bottling process could lead to variations in flavour or appearance. Whilst anything raw and fresh without preservatives can be unique, we still want each juice to be as visually consistent as possible.

Step 3: Delivered and ready to serve.

Once all that goodness is bottled up, we'll pack the deliveries and hit the road. We must deliver to our various cafe & restaurant stockists as fast as possible so they have the freshest possible product to sell.

Everything is done under temperature control. Fresh juice is sensitive. It needs constant care. For those who claim a newborn baby is tough to look after, wait until you have 1500 bottles of raw cold pressed juice to take care of!

We keep the raw juice below 5 degrees Celsius from production to delivery.

The downsides of fresh cold pressed juice.

Before you call us biased, let's be fair here and pick apart our bread and butter. Due to the short shelf life, fresh cold-pressed juice can be a pain in the backside to manage, particularly for wholesale stockists like cafes/ restaurants and bars.

Life is short.

When we first started back in 2014, our juices had a 4-day shelf life, and we only delivered once per week. This made it very hard for stockists to manage our product. It would make it almost impossible to work out how many juices to order, and then it was a blind panic if they did not sell or if they sold out!

Nowadays, our cold-pressed juices have achieved a much longer lab-tested shelf life of 7 to 21 days, depending on the flavour. Plus, we now deliver multiple times per week, meaning venues can order in smaller quantities more frequently without worrying about wasting expired juice.

Separation anxiety? Shake it up.

Separation puts some people off fresh juice, but it should do the opposite! Fresh juice separates because the components have different densities. The water in the juice is lighter than the nutrients, minerals, and pulp, so it floats to the top. The pulp and nutrients sink to the bottom. This natural process does not mean that the juice is nasty. Separation indicates that the juice does not contain any preservatives or colour stabilises.

So, don't be scared of a bit of separation. It's a good thing!

Can fresh cold-pressed juice flavours and colours be inconsistent?

Absolutely! Each batch can be slightly different. Although we follow strict recipes, each piece of fruit varies. Our fresh produce can come from multiple local farms. For example, we may mix oranges from Gin-Gin and some from Karratha. We're at the mercy of seasonal availability, farmers and mother nature.

That's the beauty of it!

Long-life cold-pressed juice vs fresh cold-pressed juice: Who wins?

SHORT ANSWER: It depends.

Yes, we knew you'd hate that! We're trying not to be too biased.

Why choose fresh, cold-pressed?

If you are the end consumer, you likely want the best-tasting, nutritionally rich and healthiest option; fresh cold-pressed juice. Or if you offer juice by the glass with ice, raw juice is more suitable when serving from a menu. Customers may not appreciate being served something they can get off the shelf in Coles.

• Much better, fresher taste.

• Healthier - nutritionally rich.

• Small batch production.

Why choose long-life cold pressed?

As a hospitality venue, consider your customer demographic and how busy you are. If you have a lower customer volume or are located in an area where the demographic is not particularly health conscious, then perhaps a long-life cold pressed juice is more suitable. Or even have it as another choice alongside a fresh option. This could make more sense in a retail environment, as they are essentially two different products.

• Longer shelf life.

• Convenient: often, long-life juice does not need to be refrigerated.

Pricing

• Fresh cold-pressed juice usually costs a little more wholesale than its long-life counterparts. However, it commands a much higher retail price (RRP) due to being a higher-quality product. Perth foodies are willing to pay more for something that is believed to be better all around! We deliberately do not stock retail stores to give Perth hospitality venues a unique product that cafegoers can't easily get elsewhere. How’s that for virtue-signalling!

• On the other juicy hand, long-life (processed) cold-pressed juice is typically cheaper to buy wholesale but does not yield a high retail price by comparison. Moreover, most long-life brands are widely available in Coles, Woolies, and almost every venue, so customers may be reluctant to pay a higher price for something they can get cheaper from the shops.

Let’s wrap up.

While both types of juice may be made using the cold pressing method, long-life juice is subject to intense processing and pasteurisation, which can lead to a reduction in nutritional value, altered taste and texture, and added preservatives and stabilisers.

On the other hand, fresh, cold-pressed juice is made to order, bottled immediately, and delivered quickly to maintain maximum freshness, nutritional value, and taste.

Study reference:

¹ Mandha, J., Shumoy, H., Matemu, A. O., & Raes, K. (2022). Effect of pasteurization and storage on quality characteristics of watermelon, pineapple and mango juices. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 59(6), 2365-2375.