Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I personally haven't noticed a lack of supply of citrus or juice, but I have noticed that the quality of what I get doesn't seem to be as good anymore...
And you'll notice it more and more as time goes by. The beauty of Florida citrus is that many Central and Northern Florida groves were right on the edge of the cold weather line, i.e. cold enough but not too cold. The cold weather makes the fruit and therefore the juice extremely sweet, (known as the "brix" count - the amount of natural sugar in the fruit). Now, with so much juice coming from Mexico and Brazil, the weather is too warm and the juice is watery. To sweeten it, they add sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
Another reason juice isn't as good as it once was is because huge company groves plant one variety, whereas, years ago, the small grower had multiple varieties in one grove. These would be picked at different times and mixed, giving the juice a richer and better flavor, (Remember back in the '70's Bing Crosby talking about "blended juice"). In other words, a Hamlin is a small orange that is loaded with juice, but a very light watery almost yellow juice. A navel on the other hand produces an extremely sweet juice which is thick. Blend that together and you have a natural juice that is very tasty.