Orange Juice
Orange juice is the sweet, mildly tart juice pressed from oranges, contributing body and fruity sweetness rather than sharp acidity to a cocktail. Freshly squeezed juice has a rounder, more aromatic flavour than store-bought. It is a common mixer in tall, easy-drinking cocktails.
Common uses
- mixer in tall built cocktails
- adds body and sweetness to shaken drinks
Buying & storage
A few days: Good for a few days refrigerated, then noticeably duller. Worth planning a second drink around rather than throwing away.
Buying: Freshly squeezed is a genuine upgrade in a two-ingredient drink and barely noticeable in a complex one. If buying, choose 'not from concentrate' and use it within a day or two of opening.
Storage: best used within a day or two of squeezing, refrigerate in a sealed container
In depth
Understanding orange juice
How it is made, where it comes from, what it pairs with, and how it behaves in an alcohol-free drink.
How it's made
Sweet rather than sour: orange juice has roughly a fifth of the acidity of lemon or lime, so it functions as a bulk fruit component rather than as an acid. Fresh juice separates within an hour, which is normal rather than a fault.
Origin
Sweet oranges spread from Asia through Mediterranean cultivation and became a mass-market juice only with twentieth-century commercial processing — which is why orange-juice cocktails are largely a modern phenomenon.
What it pairs with
Works with grenadine, tequila, campari and warm spice. It does not provide acidity, so a drink built on orange juice almost always needs a sharper citrus alongside it.
In alcohol-free drinks
- The base of several standalone alcohol-free classics rather than a supporting player
- Its sweetness is the main thing to manage — most alcohol-free orange drinks need a squeeze of lemon or lime to work
Before it goes
Use up orange juice
Ranked by how much of it each drink uses and how little else it needs — the ones at the top will not send you back to the shop.
- Screwdriver
Uses 150ml. Also needs vodka.
- Harvey Wallbanger
Uses 130ml. Also needs vodka, galliano.
- Garibaldi
Uses 120ml. Also needs campari.
- Planters Punch
Uses 480ml. Also needs dark rum, fresh lime juice, grenadine, angostura bitters.
Recipes
Cocktails containing this ingredient
Three Dots and a Dash
Dark and gold rum shaken with citrus, falernum and allspice dram — a spiced tiki classic named for its Morse-code cherry garnish.
Virgin Sunrise
Orange juice and grenadine, layered so the colour bleeds from red to gold — the Tequila Sunrise without the tequila.
Swap it
Possible substitutions
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