An amazingly large part of our monthly food budget goes toward juice. We drink a lot of it. A lot being three to four bottles per week. Considering our massive juice intake, I instituted a few standards about the types of juice I will and will not buy.

Foremost, I get juice, not colored sugar water. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. I always look at the ingredients. If the first ingredients are sugar and food coloring, it’s not juice. Just saying. Food coloring masquerades under names like FD&C Red No. 40, Red 40, artificial coloring, or caramel coloring. Juices are also occasionally colored with the juices of fruits and veggies such as beet juice. If a juice is labeled as a “fruit drink”, it’s likely to be more sugar and food coloring than juice.

I also look for 100% juice. High standards? No, not at all. Why would I pay $3-ish dollars for a bottle of flavored water? I may as well buy a bottle of 100% juice and dump half of it down the drain.