"apple juice" news and stories

Pediatric dentists have long told parents that drinking apple juice rots kids teeth. Now there is a new study that should cause more concern for parents who serve up endless sippy cups of apple juice to thirsty toddlers.

According to an independent study released by the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, apple juice contains high levels of arsenic.

That's right you read it right. Arsenic. The stuff they use in TMC movies when they want to poison someone. (Think Cary Grant's elderly murderous aunts in 'Arsenic and Old Lace').

A few years ago the government lowered the limit of arsenic in drinking water but somehow the FDA overlooked or forgot to place limits on fruit juices. They have told companies that 23 ppb (parts per billion) is a 'level of concern' but the newspaper's study found that more than 25% of the 18 samples tested contained between 25 and 35 ppb of arsenic which is way more than a 'level of concern.' (Don't you just love the bureaucratic terminology?)

As I write this post, I am sucking on a plastic stick. It's all that remains of the apple juice popsicle that I made when I started to think about writing this post. Apple juice pops were one of my favorite childhood summer treats. Sometimes years go by when I forget about them, but then on days like today, I dig out my old popsicle molds, buy some apple juice and get to freezing.

When I eat my apple juice pops, I always suck all the juice out of them first. Then, I'm left with just a pop of ice only - that is sad. I eat the ice and then, like now, all that remains is the stick.

I've considered trying a more adult version of this treat, pineapple-chile piletas (featured on Coconut and Lime), but plain, old apple does the taste and nostalgic trick for me.

For a couple of years in the 1990s, I drank ginger beer all the time. I can't even remember what brands I used to drink, but I was always experimenting with the stuff to see what cocktails I could come up with. I have to admit I never tried mixing it with apple.

This is the Apple Bomb, and besides ginger beer it features applejack, apple juice, and a lot of apple pieces on a skewer.

Apple juice has gained in popularity over the last few years. I know I have always enjoyed it. However, a lot more people turned to apple juice when orange juice prices began to go up dramatically. It seems that perhaps some other fruit juice (and that fruits growers) are about to be bumped up in the ranks, at least temporarily.

China, as in so many other areas, has become the worlds supplier of apples. Due to a late frost and bad weather there, and in Poland which is also a big apple producer, the apple crop is about 10% lower for 2007 than the previous year. This means that supply is low while demand is high. British supermarket giant Tesco has already admitted that it's seen purchase prices go up, but hasn't made any decisions on what the retail prices will do.

Personally, I love apple juice. I recently found out that it is also a good source of vitamin C. No wonder so many people turned to it from orange juice (which I also enjoy enthusiastically). Hopefully this will be a fluke year and the prices won't go up too much or for a prolonged period of time. I think, though, that I'm going to stock up while the prices are good.

[Via ColdMud.com]

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There's an "America's Favorite Neighbor" joke in here somewhere but I can't think of one at the moment.

A 2 year-old was accidentally served a margarita in his drink instead of the apple juice his mother ordered. The kid kept pushing the drink away after taking a sip and his mom didn't understand why. She opened the sippy cup and found the alcohol. She wasn't going to make a fuss, but later at home the child got sick and vomited. The chain says the incident was an isolated mistake. The child is fine now.

The reason this happened? Not only was the apple juice and the Triple sec/tequila mixture kept on the same shelf, they were kept in identical plastic bottles. Yikes.

[via The Obsure Store and Reading Room]