As people who are especially inclined to hang out in the kitchen, we've all had someone in our lives tell us that there is no difference between fresh lemon juice and the stuff that comes in the bottle. We just knew in our hearts that they were wrong, but we had no proof. That's why we subjected our crew of loyal taste testers to one of our most face-puckering challenges yet: fresh lemon juice vs. the substitutes.
We filled four cups with an equal amount of plain seltzer and either lemon juice or one of the bottled/crystallized lemon juice products. Our goals were twofold: first, could our tasters correctly identify which cup contained freshly-squeezed lemon juice? Second, did we really prefer the flavor of fresh lemon juice to the impostors?
In the end, only two of our five tasters correctly identified the freshly-squeezed lemon juice, although it did win overall flavor. The three other lemon juice products we tasted all have additional additives, including lemon oil, preservatives, and in one case sugar. In the end, we still think you should use fresh lemon juice whenever possible, but in a pinch, you might be able to get away with it.
Check out what our tasters thought below.
