FOJC. Blech. I remember first trying Tropicana Pure Premium probably 2+ decades ago now. It was awesome. Tasted like pure juice from an orange.

I don't drink OJ much anymore, but a couple of years ago I had some Pure Premium and noticed that it really tasted a lot more like concentrate than I'd remembered--it had that kind of acidic/slightly artificial taste.

So, I did a little digging and found that it is now run through a process called "deaeration". Apparently, this is well-known and the subject of controversy. The short is that they take the oxygen out, pasteurize it, and store it in massive tanks. Problem with that is that it loses its flavor. So, they add "flavor packets" before packaging it.

It's amazing that they can still call it 100% juice. Then again, it's somehow legal to say that a carton "contains 100% juice" simply because at some point some measure of 100% juice was poured in, even if the total juice ratio ends up being 2% when other ingredients are subsequently added.

OJ is a scam from start to finish: from the ridiculous claims about its healthfulness; to the slightly-shrinking packages, designed to look the same standard sizes; to what they dub 100% pure squeezed juice.

AIUI it is 100% orange juice in the sense that all of the ingredients are extracted from orange juice. Yes, "flavour packets" are added, but these flavourants are also 100% orange juice, just processed in a different way.

Yeah, I believe the flavoring is typically derived from the oils found in the peel. I don't know if there are additional additives but, in any case, I think it's safe to say that peel oils are not what most people think of as orange juice. And, it certainly doesn't taste like it.