Goodbye To The Classic Minute Maid Frozen Orange Juice

Remember when you were a kid and you were having breakfast? Maybe it was cereal, maybe it was something that your mom or dad whipped up for you in the morning and you had a glass of orange juice. Not just any orange juice, but Minute Maid orange juice. You'd take the concentrate out of the freezer, put it in a pitcher, add water, stir it up, it was awesome. 

I remember going to the shopping center and we'd stop in the freezer section, and you had your choice of OJ with pulp or no pulp. My folks went with no pulp and that's how we got orange juice in the morning when we wanted it. There was no fresh squeezed orange juice in Seattle at that time. 

Well, things are changing fast. 

According to msn.com,
‘Minute Maid helped make orange juice a year-round morning staple in 1946, when it started shipping cans of frozen juice around the U.S.
But 80 years later, the brand's parent company is halting sales of frozen juice concentrates in the U.S. and Canada, saying it wants to focus on the fresh juices that customers now prefer.’ 

I mentioned this to one of my co-workers earlier today and they looked at me like I was from Mars. They were aghast; they could not believe what I was telling them. 

Frozen concentrated orange juice and other juices have been a part of my life since I can remember. The whole idea of Minute Maid getting out of the frozen OJ business kind of blows my mind. 

The Coca-Cola Co. which owns Minute Maid, said "We are discontinuing our frozen products and exiting the frozen can category in response to shifting consumer preferences," 

So, all Minute Maid frozen concentrates and that includes orange juice, lemonade limeade will be discontinued in April of 2026, and from that point on they will only be available in stores while supplies last and then it will be gone. A piece of history over and done with. 

The times were changing, even several decades ago when my kids were small. If we wanted OJ in the house, we didn't get frozen concentrated orange juice. We went with Sunny Delight. I realize that technically I don't know that I would call it orange juice, but it was orange juice adjacent. “Sunny D” had become a part of our lifestyle. 

History lesson

The history of frozen concentrated orange juice goes all the way back to 1946. The company was called Vacuum Foods Corp., and they began shipping the product all across the country. A year later, in 1947, Tropicana started their business. 

Coca Cola bought Minute Maid In 1960, and then, thirteen years later, began offering bottled orange juice. You would find it in the refrigerator case, you know where they kept the milk. 

The market share for frozen orange juice has dwindled over the years, with other beverages replacing it, now to the point where Coca-Cola has decided to discontinue frozen concentrated juices all together. 

Yes, the times, and the tastes “they are a changing.”