Lets get fruity! (Tesco High Juice)

Member Name: catsfish

Product:	Tesco High Juice
Date:	27/08/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fruity taste, reasonable price, not too many sdditives.

Disadvantages: Lots of sugar so not great for teeth.

Tesco High Juice squash consists of several different varieties of fruit flavours and is available for around a £1.00 each. I usually buy the blackcurrant or winter fruits variety.
The product comes in a 1 litre plastic bottle with a plastic screw top lid and the label clearly states the flavour (in words and a picture) and the fact that the drink contains "40% juice" and that it "contains no artificial flavours or colours" and is suitable for vegetarians.
The drink is in concentrate form and should be diluted approximately 1 part juice to 4 parts water, and more so for toddlers.
The ingredients for the blackcurrant drink are listed as:
Sugar, blackcurrant juice from concentrate (40%), water, citric acid, preservative, antioxidant and natural flavouring.

Per 100ml the drink contains 225kcal
53.5g carbohydrate (all of which sugars)
And trace a of salt, fat and fibre.

This certainly isn't the cheapest squash available nor is it as expensive as premium brands such as "Robinsons" or "Ribena" but to me the blackcurrant one is very comparable to Ribena in taste and in the amount of fruit juice it contains. The cheaper brands I have looked at contain far less fruit and more additives some of which have been linked with hyperactivity and general restlessness in children such as Tartrazine, and from my own experience this can be the case. They also don't taste as nice as this one, and for me this is a half way house between the really expensive natural squashes such as "Rocks" which contain no additives at all, and the really cheap low fruit variety.

There is also several varieties of squash flavours in a "no added sugar" option in this range and to me this is a bit of a balance, I try to avoid asparatimine and other sweeteners in drinks because I do not believe they are particularly good for you but if its free of that, then it usually contains lots of sugar! I also find that sugar free options have a bitter aftertaste which I don't like. 100ml serving of this drink diluted as stated contains 30% of the amount of sugar that you should have in one day so you could easily reach the total just with a few glasses.
I encourage my son to drink squashes through a straw when possible to try and minimise the contact the drink has with his teeth. Our dentist also told us to save juices for mealtimes and drink water between meals to avoid too may sugary assaults on the teeth - but this is hard to keep to when they are getting more independent and would prefer other drinks!

Summary: A nice high juice squash of a reasonable price.