Tropicana Trop50 Pulp Free Review

Years ago, Tropicana launched an orange "juice" drink called Tropicana Light, which had half of the calories and less than half of the sugar in normal orange juice. As wonderful as that sounds, the results were more than disappointing - it was downright sour. Recently, they decided to re-launch the line as Trop50, by using Purevia as the sweetener.

PureVia is a stevia-derived natural no calorie sweetener. Note that this is not orange juice - it is made from orange juice and only contains 42% juice. When you start adding water and sweeteners to lower the calorie count, which is what Tropicana did with Trop50, well then, it's just an orange juice flavored beverage.

While three varieties exist (with pulp, pulp free, and fortified pulp-free), my store only carried the Pulp-Frree variety. Being a no-pulp OJ fan anyway, that was the one I brought home from the market. I gave the carton a good shake and poured up a glass of juice - and was surprised to see what looked like pulp. I did a double take; the carton was definitely marked "no pulp." Drinking mysteriously chunky orange juice is not a good way to start the day off! However, taking a sip proved all of my doubts wrong - this tastes like the regular Tropicana I know and love. While visually separated, the juice is smooth, sweet, tangy, and, of course, orange-y. There's no off sour or metallic flavors, and I didn't detect the bitter aftertaste that some people have noticed with Stevia. To be honest, if it weren't for the way this looks, I'd never have thought I was drinking anything other than 100% OJ. Check out the review from New England Bites and the snarky comments from Russ Thoughts.

A half-gallon of Tropicana Trop50 Pulp Free cost me about $2.70 which is a little more than regular Tropicana. One cup (8 oz) contains 50 calories, 10 mg sodium, and13 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of which are sugar. There is also 120% of the daily value for vitamin C. The ingredients are filtered water, not from concentrate pasteurized orange juice, malic and citric acids, natural flavors, and Reb A (PureVia brand).

While some people wouldn't buy orange-flavored orange juice, and would rather drink 100% juice, I find the reduced calories, sugar, and great taste too good to pass up. This won't replace my eating oranges, but for a morning drink with my cereal, Trop50 will have a permanent place in my fridge.

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