Getting My Orange Juice Fix

I love orange juice. (And juice from grapefruit, and tangerine...etc.) A long time ago we went cheap- we bought Minute Maid. The taste was always off, so we moved on to Florida's Natural, then Simply Orange. Better, but then... then we bought the fresh, unpasteurized stuff at Wegmans. They squeeze the citrus right in the store in a giant citrus juicer. The juice is super sweet, has very little pulp, and for a while we were addicted. But geeze, it is $11 for a gallon, $8 for a half gallon. So, we didn't get it every week, and I told myself it was a treat. After all, fresh fruit juice- while full of other nutrients- has lots of sugar and the fiber is usually greatly removed.

But now, we don't buy it at all. When I want citrus juice, I just make my own. Chris typically uses the citrus hand juicer and thus removes some of the pulp but not all of it. We tried putting oranges through our electric juicer, but then there was a great deal of clean up, the pulp was completely removed, and the juice was foamy.

Lately though, I just peel the fruit, remove any seeds, and throw it all in the blender with water. Blend, blend, blend, and nothing else is needed in my opinion.

It is definitely pulpy- but that is okay by me. I don't want to remove the pulp, I just want it broken up and really smooth. If you wanted to strain out the pulp but still use the quick blender method, you could strain it through a nutmilk bag or cheesecloth, I guess. You could also add more water than I used. It would make more juice and dilute the pulp, but flavor might taste watered down. I used 2 oranges, 1 grapefruit and 4 cups water for this juice. I shared with Aurelia- she loved it and didn't want me to have any!

Do you buy fruit juice? Ever make your own? What are your favorite combinations?