How To Bottle Juices For Sale
Are you starting a juice business or want to begin offering to-go juices at your food service establishment? When selling juices, you need to prioritize how you’re going to bottle beverages. Although you may have the freshest ingredients and best recipes, not properly storing juices will impact their flavors and nutrients. In this in-depth article, we provide you with all the information on how to bottle juices for sale to preserve the quality and freshness of beverages.
Why Bottle Your Beverages?
You may have noticed that more and more juice businesses are beginning to bottle fresh juices rather than serving them in a traditional cup. Packaging juices in bottles immediately after being prepared keeps extends your juice's shelf life and also provides your business and customers with a few other benefits.
Allows You To Prepare Drinks In Advance
Juice bottles allow your business to prepare beverages before opening your food service establishment. You can prepare large batches of juices and securely store them to maintain their freshness. This eliminates the hassle of constantly preparing juices and cleaning equipment throughout the day.
Provides A Convenient Way To Sell Grab-And-Go Beverages
There has been a recent surge in grab-and-go services because customers don’t feel comfortable dining in or are in a hurry. Bottling fresh juices ensures that guests are in and out of your establishment quickly with what they need. They can simply grab a juice from the refrigerator case, pay for it, and enjoy their drinks on the go. With how smoothly your grab-and-go service operates, you will likely gain a loyal customer base.
Allows Customers To Enjoy Juices At Any Time
When customers request fresh juice, serving it in a juice bottle allows them to enjoy it at any time. For instance, they can drink some of their beverage while dining at your establishment and enjoy the rest of it on the road. Patrons can also securely seal their beverage after each sip which eliminates accidental spills when traveling with their refreshments.
How To Choose The Right Juice Bottles
You may have perfected the recipes for your signature line of juices and now it's time to perfect your juice packaging. When bottling juices, it's essential to preserve their freshness and flavors while keeping your customers in mind. Below are a couple of tips to follow to ensure you find the right juice bottles for your business.
Find The Material That Fits Your Needs
Glass and plastic juice bottles are the most popular options on the market. Glass bottles have been a popular choice for years because of their clear finish and the high-end look they give juices. They also allow you to package dine-in drink orders and can be simply washed for reuse. However, glass juice bottles can easily break if they aren’t handled carefully and aren't cost-effective for to-go orders.
A number of business owners purchase PET or BPA-free plastic juice bottles because they offer more versatility. These beverage bottles can be used to serve dine-in customers, display grab-and-go juices or package take-out orders. While plastic juice bottles may not provide customers with the high-end feel of a glass bottle, they are break-resistant which eliminates the worry of broken glass.
Use Tamper-Evident Bottles
Tamper-evident juice bottles assure customers that the juices they purchase are securely sealed and safe to enjoy. For example, most tamper-evident plastic bottles feature a small plastic ring that is connected to the lid when sealed. When you unscrew the cap, you will hear a snapping sound and the plastic ring remains on the lip of the bottle. The ring cannot be reattached to the cap once the bottle has been opened which allows patrons to know when they have been tampered with.
Whether you’re using glass or plastic tamper-evident bottles to package juices, they offer a variety of benefits for your patrons and business. Below is a list of benefits of using tamper-evident juice bottles over conventional bottles:
- Builds trust: Tamper-evident bottles prove to guests that bottles have not been opened and your business is providing them with a sanitary drinking experience. These bottles assure customers’ safety which allows you to quickly earn their trust and loyalty.
- Prevents leaks: Since these juice bottles are securely sealed, they help prevent beverages from spilling or leaking during transport.
- Preserves the freshness of juices: Tamper-evident bottles create an airtight seal, preventing oxygen from entering the bottle to keep juices fresher for longer.
How To Store Fresh Juices
Packaging juices into bottles is a simple task. However, by not properly storing your juices once packaged, your prepared drinks will lose their bright colors and you can easily mix up drink orders. When storing fresh juices, it’s essential to follow these steps to maintain their nutrients and increase order accuracy.
1. Immediately Seal Juices In Bottles
Once you’ve prepared juices, it’s essential to immediately package them into bottles. Exposing your beverages to oxygen will cause them to quickly oxidize.
When processing and packaging beverages, fill your bottles up to the brim before closing them. This reduces the amount of air that is trapped in the bottle when you seal it. Making sure there is no room for air circulation will increase your juices’ shelf life.
2. Clearly Label Juices
Label each bottle before placing it in your commercial fridge or refrigerator case. Labeled bottles allow customers to quickly identify their desired beverages from drink displays and keep refrigerators organized to help increase order accuracy.
When labeling juice bottles, it’s important to use water-resistant labels. These labels are built to hold up to condensation which ensures that logos, designs, and text remains legible. They also help prevent labels from smudging or peeling off and bring a cohesive look to your juice brand.
3. Store Juices In The Fridge
It’s likely that a cup of fresh juice will maintain its vitamins and minerals for up to 4 hours at room temperature. To expand your juices’ shelf life, it’s essential to transfer juices into tamper-evident bottles and store them in the fridge. Keeping juices chilled helps retain their freshness and slows down decomposition.
“How long is fresh juice good for?” is a question that many business owners ask themselves once they’ve stored juices in their commercial fridge or refrigerator case. The answer depends on the type of juicer you use to prepare beverages. Each type of juicer extracts juices a certain way which affects their shelf life:
- Centrifugal juicers create a lot of heat during the extraction process which leads to quicker oxidation and nutrient degradation in your juices. This process gives your juices a shelf life of up to 24 hours when immediately stored in a commercial fridge.
- Masticating juicers process juice slower than centrifugal juices because they do not produce as much heat during the extraction process. This allows juices that are extracted from masticating juicers to maintain their freshness and vitamins for up to 72 hours when properly stored.
It’s Time To Start Selling Juices!
Now that you understand how to store fresh juice and preserve its nutrients, it’s time for you to start offering bottled beverages at your foodservice establishment. Just remember to purchase glass or plastic tamper-evident bottles and fill them up to the brim with your signature juices. And of course, don’t forget to label them so customers and employees can quickly distinguish the difference between each bottled drink.
