Everyone knows that we should all be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but for those of who have an aversion to eating healthily, it's not always easy. Sometimes we come up with the most ridiculous of excuses - for me, I never eat enough apples because once you start to take a bite, you have to eat it quickly before the insides turn brown. Once you finish, you're left with a sticky, drippy core and in a society where rubbish bins aren't always easy to find because of terrorism fears, you find yourself left with a handful of apple remains and need to not only find a bin, but a bathroom so you can wash your hand.

See, told you us unhealthy blobs came up with rubbish excuses!

Well, luckily for me, I can now get all the benefits of eating an apple from drinking Copella apple juice. Not only is apple juice scientifically proven to be as good for you as apples in their purest form, but Copella tastes exactly like apples! More on that later...


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IT'S GOOD FOR YOU
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Just 150ml of Copella Apple Juice counts towards one of your five daily fruit and veg portions. With a mere 66 calories and less than 0.2g of fat, this stuff is full of goodness. It contains 45mg of vitamin C, which equates to a whopping 75% of your recommended daily allowance. Feeling a bit run down? Get some of this in you now!

In a 12-week study carried out by researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine in the USA roughly 5 years ago, it was proven that drinking apple juice was just as beneficial as eating apples. Dianne Hyson, the head researcher stated that just a small intake of apple juice had the potential to cut down risk factors for heart disease, and that it did not take long for the effects to be felt.

Isn't it lovely to hear of a food product that's actually good for you these days? Makes a nice change from a new food scare!


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IT TASTES OF APPLES
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Now, it might seem a bit strange to say that apple juice tastes of apples, but that's exactly what Copella tastes of. I've never been very keen on apple juice in general, because it doesn't normally taste that way. But when you drink Copella, it's as if you're actually biting into an apple and it won't break your teeth, either! Pour yourself a glass, drink it with your eyes closed and you'll see what I mean. Never mind the Actimel Challenge, try the Apple Challenge. See if you can tell the difference. Go on!:)


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GUARANTEED QUALITY
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The apples used in Copella are hand picked and hand graded, so none of the nasty stuff makes it to the final stage. If more then 2% of apples in any one delivery are deemed not up to scratch, the entire load is sent back. No bad apples allowed. It might sound a bit fussy, but it does result in a really high quality product. If you don't want to take my word for it, what about Prince Charles'? In 1997, Copella was granted his Royal Warrant. Now, whatever the man may do in his personal life, he is a bit of an authority on natural food and drink products.

Copella products rank right up there with Innocent, when it comes to natural goodness. Don't forget to shake your apple juice before drinking it - it's a cloudy apple drink, so some natural sediment may settle at the bottom of the bottle.


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IT'S WIDELY AVAILABLE
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According to Copella, you can find their apple juice products at all of the major supermarkets. This includes Tesco, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Waitrose, Asda, Co-op and Morrisons. I've also seen Copella available at Boot's, as part of their Meal Deal offer.

Now at my local Boot's, a tiny bottle of Copella (250ml) does cost roughly £1.25, but at Tesco, the same bottle comes in at around 70p. So I would recommend getting it in with your lunch instead of buying it on its own!

Copella apple juice comes in different sizes: 250ml, 330ml, 1l and 1.75l. Availability does tend to vary retailer by retailer, but generally speaking, the 1l bottles aren't hard to find. The variants (there's more than pure apple for sale, you know!) are harder to track down, but if you have a good hunt about, you can find bottles of Apple & Blackberry, Apple & Raspberry, Apple & Elderflower and Apple & Mango.

At the time of writing, a 1.75l litre was available for £2.79 and a 1l litre bottle for £1.68 from Sainsbury's.


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IT'S BRITISH (MOSTLY)
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Copella primarily use Cox's Orange Pippins in their apple juice and source most of their apples from England. Given that the main apple season here is only September to October, the company does source some apples from elsewhere in Europe when it's hard to get hold of home-grown apples. Having an apple tree in my garden myself, I can confirm that at certain times of the year, it just doesn't make any sense to eat only British fruit!

The apples are all pressed in Suffolk, where the only thing added to the juice that isn't apples, is extra vitamin C. This stops the apples from going brown and makes the juice extra healthy and good for you!


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CONCLUSION
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Copella Apple Juice is a "not-from-concentrate" product, so it's not exactly the cheapest type of fruit juice out there. Even if you compare like for like, you could save a few pennies by buying a supermarket brand.

However... This stuff tastes amazing, and when I go back to university after my year away, I will be adding Copella into the basket along with the Extra Value Baked Beans. After all, there are some things that you just shouldn't scrimp on. Definitely recommended! :)