Diet Food Reviews

Minute Maid Light Fruit Drink

By: Tanya Patrice | Jul 6, 2005

Minute Maid Light is a 'fruit drink' not a 'fruit juice.' Hopefully, everyone knows by now that fruit beverages are basically divided into two categories - fruit juice, which is 100% juice, and then there's the ' other stuff.' The standard of identity is, it's either juice or it's not. Terms like fruit drink, fruit cocktail, fruit beverage have no legal definition. They can all be used interchangeably to refer to any juice drink that's less than 100% juice. Now almost always what that means is it's some amount of fruit juice combined with water and some kind of sweetener — sugar, corn syrup, cane syrup, whatever.

In the case of Minute Maid Light Raspberry Passion, it is a 10% fruit juice blend, sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K. The taste of this product was acceptable to me, but only just so! Another friend who tried it didn't like it at all and I don't really blame her. It tastes like sweetened water, and that's how you have to think about it in order to drink it. If you go at it thinking you're going to get something tasting like juice, then you will be sorely disappointed. The Minute Maid Lemonade is another story. I did not like this at all! It tasted like acidic, soured, lemony water.

There are only 15 calories, 2 g of sugar and 100% of the daily requirements of vitamin C, but I don't think I would be buying either of these products again, although I may go for the Raspberry flavor once in a while.

›› Rating

Taste (2.5/5):
Nutrition (5/5):
Price (4/5):
Overall (3/5):