KARACHI: Refrigerators in supermarkets and stores, which used to be full of a variety of coloured aerated or carbonated water or cold drinks, as we know them, are slowly being replaced by small boxes of juice — orange, mango, apple, pomegranate, grape and lychee. Today, children, who may reach out for a cold drink, are gently persuaded by parents to try a box of juice instead.

Yes, that is the trend these days as people become more health conscious. “What’s there in a cold drink? It is just sugar, water and artificial flavour and colouring,” says a mother, putting the pack of cold drink cans her daughter placed in their trolley back on the supermarket rack and getting some boxes of orange juice instead. “At least this way we can have something pure that is full of vitamins, too.”

But the mother, though she means well and is on the right track, doesn’t realise that even in those boxes of juice there may be some artificial colouring and flavour added besides sugar and preservatives. If she really wants her children to have pure juices, she better buy the fruit herself to juice or head for any of those juice shops springing up on every other street these days.

To make the job easier, if you want to juice fruit or vegetables at home, there are a variety of juicers available at the electrical appliances shops. Apple juicers can also be used for other fruits and vegetables such as pomegranate, carrots or beetroot. And if you peel them first, you may also use apple juicers for oranges and grapefruit juice. There are also some mechanical juicers that don’t even need electricity to run. For instance, for citrus fruits there are also the rotary action juice extractors or you can do this manually as well by squeezing and turning half an orange or grapefruit over the rugged upside-down cup. Then there is also the manual juice press.

Mir Hasan Khan at A-One Snacks juice shop says that since it is the season of citrus fruits, the people demand orange and grapefruit juice more than apple juice. “Apples are available the year round but kinoo, malta and grapefruit is what everyone wants in order to make the most of this season. Of course, children like sweet things so they prefer kinoo juice while our older customers, who are also more health conscious, want grapefruit juice. These juices are excellent if you are on a detoxifying diet,” the man says.

‘Fresh OJ’, says a sign on a small kiosk near Kalapul. “I make orange juice here the entire day for Rs60 a glass. But that day I was confused when a few teenage boys approached me asking for fresh ‘OJ’. I didn’t understand and told them I did not have any when they pointed to the orange juice I was busy squeezing. ‘O’ for orange and ‘J’ for juice, they said. Then I understood. Now I also tell everyone I sell fresh OJ,” laughs Mohammad Ijaz, a juice stall vendor.

“I also make carrot juice,” he says pointing to pealed carrots soaking in water in buckets. “Some people ask for plain carrot juice while others want me to mix it with beetroot which adds to the sweetness and colour of the natural beverage that is full of vitamins.”

Nearby is Mohammad Iqbal, passing sugar cane through his press juicer. On one side a child fills up containers full of sugar cane juice before selling it for Rs10 (small glass) and Rs20 (big glass). “Sugar cane juice is full of health, and it is not expensive at all. Many of my customers say that their doctor has advised them to have sugar cane juice as they are recovering from jaundice. I tell them to have it all the time and not wait for anything to happen to their health before turning to healthy juices,” he says. “Really, I am not just selling juice here. I am selling glasses full of health. Cheers!”

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2016