The Worst Brand Of Apple Juice Is Laughably Popular

Just last month, Chowhound writer Emily M Alexander ranked various brands of apple juice from worst to best in a face-off between 11 brands to decide which juice came out on top. Unfortunately, Snapple's take on the sugary beverage earned last place, just behind Juicy Juice and Minute Maid.

The apple juices on Alexander's list were ranked on "overall quality, price, and most importantly flavor, including the level of sweetness, tartness, and whether or not it tasted like real apples." Snapple's shortcomings seem to be in every single category besides its fairly affordable price. Other than its accessibility, this juice ranked low in nearly every other aspect.

Alexander stated that Snapple Apple juice deserved this ranking based on its subpar flavor and poor quality compared to the 10 other options included in the taste test. She mentioned that the "overbearingly sweet" smack that comes from its added sugar creates an unpleasant, manufactured taste. Its artificial flavor, on top of its off-putting and unnatural red color, puts it at the bottom of her apple juice ranking.

One of the reasons that Snapple's apple juice doesn't taste like the other featured apple juices is because it doesn't actually contain apple juice. Despite its deceiving branding, including a shiny red apple on its packaging, the Snapple Apple flavor only contains pear juice concentrate and various other non-apple ingredients like sugar and citric acid. While the Snapple website describes the flavor as "a blast of the juicy, crisp flavor of red ripe apples that's just begging to be bottled," it is unlike any other apple beverages you will find on the shelf based on the fact that it isn't really an apple beverage at all (except for trace amounts of apple concentrate).

A confused Reddit user asked why Snapple Apple tastes so much like apples without actually including the fruit in the drink, and various commenters explained that the artificial apple flavoring may have deceived consumers on the difference between real apple flavor and fake apple flavor. Adding certain ingredients specifically to change the juice's color to a light red may offer the illusion that it is, in fact, apple juice; this trick is pushed even more by the red apple on the front of the bottle.

Because of this long list of flaws, Snapple Apple has rightly earned its spot at the bottom of Emily Alexander's ranking. However, despite its faults, Snapple Apple is actually one of the company's most popular flavors. Various rankings across the web such as this one from Sporked agree with this, which begs the question: Why? It seems that the authenticity of apple juice is losing its importance as long as there's a brand name slapped on its packaging.