Why is fresh-squeezed juice never rarely served with ice cubes?

I suppose it may be a matter of diluting it; I don’t know. Fresh squeezed orange juice is precious stuff. I guess if you want ice cubes in your you will have to ask for them.

Agreed @lillycoyote ! I don’t put ice in my orange juice wether it is freshly squeezed or not. But as above, I assume it is the thought of watering down the good stuff!

Why not serve it with cubes of frozen juice?

But ice dilutes every beverage (well, except water), so that doesn’t seem right. Why care more about watering down juice than, say, fresh lemonade? There’s pretty much always ice in lemonade. Maybe if the juice hits a certain temperature, the flavor changes or something…

@flutherother Genius!

This has always been something of a mystery to me also. I believe you have to request ice for fresh juice drinks in most restaurants,
It is in fact a matter of diluting the drinks.
I personally don’t prefer ice in most of my beverages.
Even my liquor.

I don’t put ice in any drink at home, except rare occassion iced tea if I just made it and it has not had time to chill. In a restaurant I ice up iced tea, sometimes even add water if it is too strong, I like it very weak. In a restaurant I woud ice lemonaide also. That’s it. I don’t put ice in soda/pop. I prefer to not have any in my water, unless the water isn’t cold.

Lemonaide is different than orange juice, it is made of mostly water to begin with,

My husband also does not use ice, but he adds a little water to MInute Maid orange juice, but not fresh squeezed.

Ice does dilute the drink, it has much less to do with keeping it cold for me. All that ice is a very American thing from what I can tell. I guess some other countries do it too.

Maybe it’s because when you buy juice in a restaurant, unless it’s from a buffet where it’s pay-one-price, it’s expensive, it’s a few dollars for a small glass. So to put ice in the glass is to take away a major portion of the expensive stuff.

Actually, @jca has me thinking, orange juice seems to be one of the last hold outs still served in a small glass. It’s almost like a cocktail. I’ll take my orange neat. Hahaha. I agree with @jca that it partly might have to do with how much it costs, and how precious it is, well, when it is fresh squeezed. But, I would think it more has to do with taste. I don’t understand not payng attention to the taste, how strong or weak it is, and how one prefers it. To me it seems like the person could be drinking anything, and doesn’t really care what something tastes like if how watered down or not doesn’t register with them. I don’t mean people who ice their drinks don’t care, they may specifically want the drink more watered down, I mean people who don’t care, and only focus on whether it is ice cold whatever it is.

it would be diluted with water as the ice melts, which really destroys the taste.

It changes the nutritional value and it spoils the uniform texture.

Freshly squeezed oj is perhaps the elixir of life personified; ice would be sacrilege.

I’ve been to plenty of restaurants that serve juice over ice. I find it annoying, because I feel like I’m paying a premium price for what is mostly water that won’t melt in time for me to drink. Of course, I like things like passionfruit juice that costs $9 per quart down in Florida and you can’t get up in Philly, no matter how much you are willing to spend.

@wundayatta Many times when I used to order Coke with no ice (I almost never order a coke anymore) the waiter would say, “you get the same amount no matter what; we bring you a can.” I think that shows the mentality of restaurants in general. The ice is to enhance the bottom line. Other countries, especially those without safe drinking water from the tap use very little ice. I assume because the ice is expensive.

I personally dislike ice, and have to ask for my water without it, and my iced tea with just a little. I’m sure they’d give you ice if you ask for it in beverages that come without.

Cold dulls your ability to appreciate flavor or masks unpleasant ones.

@kruger_d I feel that way about hot stuff!