That's because the not from concentrate is mostly bullshit. They store the juice for up to a year and preserve it by deoxygenating the giant storage containers. That destroys most of the flavor and so they add in artificial flavor packs rendering the end product an orange flavored beverage instead of juice.
From concentrate is actually better. That's 100% from an orange. You lose flavor from the solidification process but the end result is all from the orange.
"All from the orange" is a clever conceit. It's a processed food product. If you get Minute Maid, it incorporates a flavor pack created by Coca-Cola. It's not listed in the ingredients because the flavor pack is made from orange.
Completely agree and it’s so much better at least to me.
I’d even go as far to say that many people who are used to drinking the concentrate or shelf stable stuff have no idea how much different fresh squeezed OJ tastes. To the point where it’s surprising and in some cases not to their taste because they are so used to the processed stuff.
The process of making concentrate loses most of the aroma, which is then added back using perfumes which are derived from oranges. Because the perfumes are made from oranges, using certain techniques, they do not have to be listed as separate ingredients, and the can will just say “orange” in the ingredient list. One fundamental problem is that natural orange juice goes bitter when exposed to air, and that problem isn’t solved by concentrating it… because you won’t drink it all right after reconstituting it.
If you compare FCOJ to fresh-squeezed, the difference is not subtle. It’s incredibly obvious. It doesn’t even matter what type of orange you use for juicing—try them all.