I was first introduced to really good proper fresh apple juice in a juice bar many years ago in London, and for a long time it seemed that that excellent freshly juiced taste was only going to be mine when I visited somewhere like that, or somewhere that made their own. That was until Copella came along.

As far as I'm aware, Copella was the first 'proper' fresh apple juice of this sort to make it into the supermarkets. It was certainly the first that I encountered locally, and although others have followed, for me Copella is still the best and very much my favourite. It's made with fresh English apples and doesn't contain any nasties at all. In fact, the only added ingredient is vitamin C which is acts as an antioxidant. Now both these points are important to me. If I'm going to buy fresh then I'd rather it was fresh and home grown - if I could get stuff grown in my own county as well as country I probably would. Also, if I'm going to buy fresh then I want it to BE fresh... I don't want it full of chemicals designed to make it last months and months.

Of course all this naturalness does mean that when you buy Copella apple juice it doesn't have as long a shelf life and you have to seek it out in the refrigerator section of the supermarket. When you get it home, you also need to keep it in the fridge and it only keeps for a few days. It also means that it's not cheap. We're talking around £1 for a small individual 250ml bottle and around £1.70 for the 1 litre and £2.70 for the largest size of 1.25 litres. Now personally for something which tastes so good I don't mind paying these prices though admittedly I can't afford to buy this every week, and I'm always happy to see it on a special offer. I can understand however why some people would just laugh and walk away without trying it.

Copella comes in a clear plastic bottle that's kind of square shaped. The juice inside isn't clear like most processed apple juice is, it's cloudy and a sort of greeny yellowy colour. When you taste it, the flavour is just like biting into a fresh apple straight from the tree. Very refreshing and with a mixture of sweetness and tartness that is just beautifully tasty.

For me one of the nicest and most refreshing treats is to pour myself a glass of this in the early morning on a summery day and sit in the garden with my book before the rest of the world is really awake. I do awake sometimes ridiculously early and I love the fresh taste of this to go with the fresh morning air, the two seem really magical together somehow, and it helps me to wake up and set myself up for the day.