Ingredient: Apple Juice
Britain has over 2,000 apple varieties, and most of us have only ever tasted about four of them. That forgotten heritage is a good reason to think more carefully about the apple juice you buy.
The best juice is cloudy pressed juice, not the clear filtered kind. Cloudy juice keeps more of the natural plant compounds from the fruit, and because of that, it just tastes more like apples. A lot of the best pressing happens in Somerset and Herefordshire, where varieties like Kingston Black and Yarlington Mill have been grown for centuries. Those orchards faced serious decline in the late 20th century, but smaller producers have been slowly bringing them back.
Nutritionally, apple juice gives you some vitamin C and polyphenols. One 150ml glass counts towards your five-a-day and that’s the limit, no matter how much you drink. It’s naturally quite sugary and lacks the fibre you’d get from eating a whole apple, so treat it as an ingredient rather than a drink to gulp down.
That said, it’s useful in the kitchen. Stir apple juice into porridge for sweetness without adding sugar, use it in marinades, salad dressings, smoothies, or swap it into baking where you want a lighter, fruity flavour.
