Cop a Load of This! (Copella Fruit Juice Apple & Mango)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Copella Fruit Juice Apple & Mango
Date:	28/04/09 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The refreshing taste of pure juice.

Disadvantages: Owned by Pepsi-co and not organic.

Copella Fruit Juice Apple & Mango is, according to the producers: "a luxurious blend of apples and exotic mangoes, combined to produce a rich juice sensation" and I have to agree. This is a deliciously refreshing drink when served cool from the fridge. Mango is one of my favourite fruits and I always find that apple juice makes a refreshing change from orange juice produced in California. The flavours in this drink have a refreshing vibrancy combined with smoothness resulting in a finely balanced taste sensation. The mango just adds something extra to the apple. It's quite sweet, but not overpoweringly so. The juice really does seem to be a blend that captures the full flavour of apples plucked from the tree.

The Copella brand was created by the late Devora Peake. She was the daughter of Russian parents living in Tel Aviv. After finishing University there she moved to the heart of the Suffolk countryside during the 1930's where she set up a 120 acre fruit farm with her husband. Copella launched its own chilled range of 100% pure pressed apple juice and apple juice blends in 1994. The name Copella is derived from the first letters of Cox's Orange Pippins, one of the main varieties of apples used in the juice, and the last part of Devora Peake's youngest daughter's name - CarmELLA. Unfortunately this once authentic historic charm is now somewhat blemished by the fact that Copella is now owned and controlled by Pepsi-co.

Most fruit juice is quite expensive nowadays and a litre of Copella usually costs around the £1.90 which is competitive with the Tropicana brand if not the supermarket own labels. For example the 1 litre of Tesco Nfc Apple Mango Juice costs only £1.48 - although it only contains 10% of mango puree compared to the 15% in Copella. If there is one product that you should always be sure to check the label carefully, then it is fruit juice. What might seem like a cheaper brand so often contains less or no pure fruit juice or has water added. Copella fruit juice contains no added colours, flavours, preservatives, sweeteners or water and the sugar content comes only from the natural fruit. A 200ml serving counts as on of your five a day so that means you've got five of these in a bottle.

According to the manufacturers, Copella Fruit Juice Apple & Mango is only made from hand picked fruit and an impression is given on their website that all apples are grown on their Suffolk farm where all the fruit is "hand picked off the trees and then hand graded to extract any rotten apples or windfalls". However, there is no guarantee that all the apples are British. It is also important to point out that the juice is not organic.

Once opened a bottle of Copella should keep in the fridge for about five days, although in my house it rarely lasts that long.

Summary: Apple and mango fruit juice made in Suffolk.