The quality of the fruit juice you use can make or break a cocktail! Just as top chefs only use the very freshest ingredients, the world’s leading bartenders will only use freshly squeezed juice in their cocktails.

Of course, when you’re making cocktails at home, sometimes a beautiful, high-quality packaged juice - especially for those flavours that are a bit harder to juice yourself, such as apple or pineapple - is a fantastic and convenient way to create delicious drinks. However, when you get the chance, it’s a lovely treat to use freshly squeezed juice. Here’s why.

5 Reasons Fresh Juice is Best

Fresh fruit juice tastes better!

Sometimes when you get a carton of juice it tastes synthetic because of the artificial preservatives and additives that have been added to stop it going off as it sits on shop shelves. It’s nothing like the burst of flavour you get when you bite into a juicy segment of a freshly peeled citrus fruit.

When you juice fruit yourself, you know you’re getting the unadulterated natural flavour and sweetness of the fruit, rather than chemicals.

2. No added sugar

The longer citrus juice is in contact with the air, the more bitter it becomes. This is because of a process called enzymatic bittering. Sugar is often added by processing plants to disguise this change in flavour… and the consequence is extra calories in your cocktail, and an almost overpowering artificial sweetness!

Freshly squeezed juice is full of natural, delicious sweetness that will complement your gin perfectly.

Of course, many commercially produced juices have also been pasteurised - blasted with heat to kill any bad bacteria picked up during the process - which also gets rid of many of the nutrients, such as Vitamin C, in the juice.

3. It’s in the recipe!

Many classic cocktails that require fruit juice were invented by mixologists back in the 1800s, before industrially produced juice was the norm. To authentically recreate their tipples, you have to use fresh juice.

4. No food waste

When you juice a piece of citrus like a lemon or orange, you have the opportunity to use the entirety of the fruit, because so many cocktails call for a bit of zest or rind as a garnish. That means nothing gets wasted!

5. It gets your creative juices flowing!

Making your own juice allows you to be more experimental with your homemade cocktails. Why not combine grapefruit and mango, or add a little kiwi to your lime? You can even try out different vegetable juices!

Yes, in the same way that our favourite smoothies often combine fruit and vegetable juice, fresh or raw vegetable juice is a great way to add complexity to your cocktails. We especially recommend cucumber, kale, baby spinach and beetroot. Not sure where to start? Carrots mix well with almost any fruit, and apples mix well with any vegetable!

Top Tip:

If you are storing your citrus fruits in the fridge, pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds before juicing. Cold citrus fruits are harder to juice than room temperature or slightly warm fruits.