Minute Maid Lights ~ New Lower Calorie Juice Flavors

Just released this January 2013, the Coca-Cola owned Minute Maid is now offering four tasty flavors of Minute Maid Lights – a lower calorie juice option.  While not a big juice drinker, I’m a new fan of these… they really are light and refreshing

We don’t drink much juice in our house, largely due to the high sugar and calorie content.  So this will prove to be an interesting and tasty new option.

The four new light juice beverages include:

• Minute Maid_®Pure Squeezed Light No Pulp
• Minute Maid Light™ Mango Passion
• Minute Maid Light™ Peach with Tea
• Minute Maid Light™ Raspberry with Tea

This product line was introduced to provide an additional variety of choice for all lifestyles, and will join the previous Minute Maid Lite Lemonades.

My family tried the following flavors, and really enjoyed them.  We intend to try the others soon!  Here’s what we thought of our samples…

Minute Maid_®Pure Squeezed Light No Pulp Orange Juice

The Minute Maid Light Orange Juice is not from concentrate, and strikes a great tart/sweet balance.

I don’t like many orange juices because they taste too sour to me.  But this new “light” orange juice by Minute Maid tastes exactly that… light and refreshing, with the perfect amount of sweet.

At 50 calories per serving, the flavor leaves you feeling you are still drinking a delicious “real” orange juice – but has 50% less calories and sugar than a full orange juice would.  A nice calorie saving option if you love your OJ.

This was my daughters favorite!   (More on sweeteners, and making those choices for your child found below.)

Minute Maid Light™ Raspberry with Tea

The Minute Maid Light™ Raspberry with Tea was my personal favorite, and again because of it’s “light” taste will definitely be something I choose to drink this upcoming warm weather season.

It’s not heavy and sweet like a full juice would be, but it doesn’t taste watered down in the slightest.

Nice job, Minute Maid!

Artificial Sweeteners ~ Should You Let Your Kids Drink Them?

This is a hot button topic, but I wanted to mention it briefly because “juice” and “kids” so often go together.  But I know as a mom, I don’t like my kids to drink diet sodas, or take in too many unnecessary artificial sweeteners.

Coca-Cola takes the safety of their ingredients seriously, and has a really informative and interesting organization and website called The Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness that you might want to look at if this topic interests you.

They’ve pooled a great deal of helpful information the site, addressing everything from hydration and active healthy living, to specific scientific health-related data on beverage ingredients such as caffeine and many different sweeteners.

Use of artificial sweeteners for your child is a very personal choice for each mom to make.   It bears mentioning that many kids struggle with childhood obesity these days.  I would think this would potentially be a product to consider in that situation, as an option to cut daily calorie intake.

But if you prefer to keep this product line to yourself, as a grownup… that’s fine, too.

Minute Maid Light Beverages ~ At Home or On-the-Go

For myself I typically go by the motto “all things in moderation”.   So will I let my kids drink Minute Maid Lights?  Yes, probably on occasion.  Because I will likely end up purchasing the 59 oz. size from the grocery store, and they will be allowed to drink it once in awhile.

I do see the Minute Maid Lights as more often being a beverage choice for myself, however.  I don’t really like flavored water, and I honestly would never grab a bottle of regular juice to drink.  But I really enjoyed the flavors of Minute Maid Light that I tried, and I will definitely be watching for them when making those on-the-go drink purchases in single serving size.

I actually can’t wait to try the Mango Passion and Peach Tea…

Minute Maid Lights ~ Giveaway

Try them for yourself!  Coca-Cola and Minute Maid has provided me with some coupon vouchers to receive a free 59 oz. size of their new Minute Maid Light beverages.

There will be 4 winners, and each will receive 2 free Minute Maid Light vouchers.

Open to US residents.  Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

I received two 59 oz. samples of Minute Maid Light juice to try, free of charge.  All opinions are my own.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway