Juiced

Apple juice gets a bad rap, and it deserves better. Somehow it's been relegated to the realm of "kid food," along with chicken nuggets and spaghetti with butter. But why? Why is it the only juice treated this way? Millions of adults drink orange juice with their breakfast each morning. Lemons... well, kids build stands to sell lemonade to adults. Grapefruits, pineapples, mangos and other complicated fruits I can understand: kids are afraid to drink juice made from strange fruits that they don't normally eat. So what is it about apples that's so childish?

But it can't just be apples themselves. Applesauce is an acceptable side dish. Adults eat apples all the time; I'd guess that most kids would rather eat oranges, grapes, or cherries anyway. Is it just a question of publicity? Maybe apple juice needs a better PR campaign. Television commercials for oranges feature bright and colorful oranges being plucked from trees, and delicious looking juice sliding from a pitcher into a cup next to a plate filled with too-good-looking-to-be-real eggs or toast. Apple juice commercials, on the other hand, are all about rambunctious kids playing in the yard and knocking things over until their mom calls them into the kitchen for a quick sip from a straw in a little plastic box. All it would take to make a difference would be one good commercial. A farmer, in a field at daybreak, walks over to a tree with fire-engine red apples glistening in the morning sun light. He reaches up and picks one, and we dissolve to a slow-motion closeup of golden apple juice falling into a tall glass. It's not just for kids, and it's not just for breakfast either. Something needs to be done.

Next on the agenda: why aren't there ciders for every other fruit?