Apple Juice

TASTING NOTES

Freshly Made from 100% Real AUSTRALIAN Apples
No Concentrates
No Added Sugars
So Fresh - Availability only via our distribution network

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Fresh Apple Juice

Harcourt Apple Juice is Australia’s best pure fresh apple juice, bar none.

Harcourt Apple Juice is 100% Australian grown and made. It is pure, fresh apple juice, cold pressed by traditional methods from locally grown Harcourt apples.

The varieties of apples that we use in our Harcourt Apple Juice include:-

  • Granny Smith
  • Akane
  • Pink Lady
  • Lady William
  • Sundowner
  • Jonathan
  • Crimson Snow
  • Abba

Careful blending of fruit varieties, combining the refreshing tang of some varieties with the stronger apple scent and natural sugars of others, rewards the consumer with what we believe is the best juice available. Subtle seasonal changes in the apple varieties available are reflected in our juice.

Regular Harcourt Apple Juice drinkers will notice these subtle changes from week to week.

Harcourt Apple Juice is a valuable source of potassium and natural acids. But best of all, it tastes great.

A small amount of Potassium Sorbate (preservative 202), a natural yeast inhibitor, is added to improve shelf life and stop the juice fermenting prematurely.

This equates to a dosage rate of 400mg/kg of Sorbic Acid.

Nutritional Information (per 100ml Serving)

Energy: 181 kJ
Protein: 0.0 g
Fat – Total: 0.0 g
Fat – Saturated: 0.0 g
Carbohydrates: 10.6 g
Sodium: 9 mg
Preservative: 202 added
Carbohydrates – Sugars: 10.6 g

CULTIVATION AND CLIMATE

The Harcourt Valley has long been renowned for growing quality Apples and Pears.
The flavour and crispness of Harcourt Apples is derived from the unique interplay of climate and granite soils in the district.
Located at the foot of Mount Alexander, the district experiences cool to cold winters, with occasional snow-falls, and warm dry ripening conditions in late summer and through an extended autumn.
The cold winters promote fruit set while the spring rains are adequate for early fruit development.
Growing conditions are supplemented throughout summer by irrigation from spring-fed dams and the historic Coliban irrigation system.
The long dry autumns are ideal for ripening of fruit, particularly the late red varieties of Apple.
The soils, derived from the granitic rocks of Mount Alexander, are sandy and ideal for the cultivation of Pomme fruit.
These granitic soils are naturally low in nutrient levels which enables the growers to control tree vigour by carefully applied fertilisers so that most of the bio-energy is directed into the development of dense crisp Apple rather than very large vigorous Apple tree.

JUICE PRODUCTION

Juice production

The traditional cold pressing methods we employ, extract a clear juice which retains all the healthy goodness of real fruit juice. Chilled fruit is crushed, pressed and further chilled before bottling, to retain natural flavour and provide optimum drinking quality and shelf life.

Harcourt Apple Juice is manufactured weekly and distributed immediately via our distribution network.

Purchasing

All our juice fruit is sourced from the Harcourt Valley. We deal with 90% of the growers in the Harcourt region and purchase our fruit direct from the growers or through the Harcourt Coolstores.

All fruit is washed and graded (sorting table-grade fruit from juice-grade fruit) prior to being placed in 350 kg bulk bins where it is then transported to our coolstores.

The fruit that we use for our juice is selected to give us a finished product which reaches our high standards of colour, clarity and taste.

The fruit should:-

  • Produce a lighter colour juice (colour)
  • Produce very little sediment (clarity)
  • Be not too sweet (taste)

Refrigeration

All our fruit is stored in coolstores at 1ºC until it is required for use. This ensures that the fruit is in best condition and will therefore produce the best quality juice for you.

Crushing

Upon removal from cold storage, the fruit is crushed in a rotary crusher to produce a fine pulp. Crushing the fruit greatly assists with the extraction of the juice from the fruit.

Pressing

Immediately after crushing, the fruit pulp is pumped into a 1 meter diameter press, where it is cold pressed (no additional heat applied) to extract the juice from the pulp. The press subjects the pulp to 830kPa (120 psi) pressure and this ensures almost total juice extraction from the pulp.

Chilling

Once the juice has been extracted from the pulp, it passes through a Glycol heat exchanger to further reduce the temperature of the juice. Keeping the temperature of the juice as low as possible helps the juice taste better and last longer. As our juices are FRESH juices, not pasteurized or reconstituted fruit juice drinks, we need to take extra good care of it to ensure you have the best juice possible.

Settle and blend

After passing through the heat exchanger, the juice is pumped into a 5000L stainless steel holding tank in our coolroom. In this tank, the juice from that various varieties of apples are blended to achieve our required taste. While the juice is in the tank, any sediment (tiny particles of apple that escape the press) settles out of the juice so that the final product is clear and appetizing.

Bottling

After settling overnight, the juice is bottled and packed for distribution into shops and supermarkets. Schools and hospitals are also very keen to use our juices because they are so healthy and tasty.

The Borelli bottling plant installed in 2010 has increased efficiency and speed of production to match the growing demands for our product.

Distribution

Once the orders from the distributors have been assembled, they are loaded into our refrigerated truck for delivery.

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