An Afternoon at Sun Orchard

The foundation for juice quality is a combination of freshness of the fruit, careful inspection and sanitization, extraction and gentle pasteurization, and management of shelf life.

“Try not thinking of peeling an orange. Try not imagining the juice running down your fingers, the soft inner part of the peel. The smell. Try and you can't. The brain doesn't process negatives.”
— Doug Coupland

Sun Orchard has been in the business of creating fresh-squeezed citrus juices for more than 25 years. On Sept. 24, Cactus IFT enjoyed a tour of the citrus-juice and fruit-processing facility, as well as a few glasses of delicious OJ.

Tony DeCastro, Sun Orchard’s vice president of product innovation and regulatory affairs, was our tour guide for the afternoon and gave us an overview of how everything worked at the facility.

First, he gave us some of the history about the place and how Sun Orchard found its niche in the marketplace dominated by giant corporations. They achieved success by becoming a full-service nationwide distributor for supplying fresh-squeezed juice beverages and bar mixes like margaritas mixes to restaurants.

We then walked into the receiving center where the fruit is inspected, then scrubbed, washed and sanitized. The fruit is then sent through an extraction process.

The extractors squeeze the juice freshly as anyone would in their own home. When we arrived, the entire area was being sprayed down with water for its regular cleaning between shifts. It gave us the time to look at the machines unimpeded and without bothering production.

Then, we were guided through rooms that featured a series of pipes and tanks. We learned that it was through these pipes that Sun Orchard performed gentle pasteurization and ensuring the safety of the product. The pasteurization delivers shelf life to the product, but has no effect on the quality or flavor of the end product.

Citrus flavor actually depends quite a bit on the content of lemon oil in the product and concentration of the volatile compound called d-limonene, DeCastro explained to us. He told us that lemon oil is also pressed out of the rinds of the fruit because of its high value on the market.

We entered the room where product blending and customization of juice is performed and DeCastro shared how different levels of volatile compounds are needed depending on the proprietary mix.
Lastly, we came to where the juice was bottled and packaged. That’s when thirst came over us and DeCastro let us enjoy some of those delicious volatile compounds in a glass.

— David Despain