FAQs

We’ve been making our unique range of juices for 30 years now and over that time – not much has changed. We take fresh tree-ripened fruit, which we destone and puree, then blend with cold-pressed apple juice or mineral water in batches of around 3000 litres.

The juice is hot-bottled (like jam) which locks in all the natural flavours and goodness and also means no preservatives and a great shelf-life of at least 2 years.

All Benjer juices are as natural as we can get them. We take fresh sun-ripened fruit direct from our orchardists, destone and puree the fruit then blend it either with apple juice or mineral water then bottle. The only exceptions are that we import premium mango puree and our OJ is made from concentrate as we simply haven’t been able to source NZ grown oranges in sufficient quantity. But watch this space.

All our apple-based varieties (Boysenberry, Raspberry, Feijoa, Mango, Cherry and Apple) have no sugar added – only the natural sugars already present in the fruit.

We add sugar back to our Nectarine and Apricot varieties to bring the flavour profile back to what you would otherwise expect when biting into a fresh piece of fruit.

There is no sugar added to the OJ.

The simple answer is – as little as possible. Our apple juice is 100% Cox’s Orange Apple Juice and nothing else. We add a little bit of citric acid to bring out the tartness of the fruit and depending on the season and flavour profile of the fruit we may add some natural flavour. We don’t add any preservatives or colouring.

Our Apple, Boysenberry, Raspberry, Mango, Feijoa and Cherry juices have no sugar added. There is obviously all the natural sugars already present in the fruit, but definitely no refined sugars. And there are no preservatives.

We have to add some sugar back to our Nectarine and Apricot varieties as we lose some of the natural sweetness when we remove the skin – but we only add what we need to in order to keep the flavour profile true to the original fruit – which varies depending on the season.

Juice from concentrate is juice that has had most of its water content removed through a filtration and extraction process which removes most of the nutrients and fibre from the fruit. What you are left with is a thick syrup loaded with sugar. When ready to reconstitute, water is added back in, but unfortunately not the nutrients and fibre that were removed.

Most of the juices you will see on the shelves in your local supermarket, dairy and many cafes are typically made from concentrate – because it’s cheaper, easier and more consistent when producing on a mass scale.

Our juices are all batch-produced using real fruit. Often is only a matter of days between the fruit being picked, processed and bottled – and yes – you can definitely taste the difference.

Because we use fresh fruit and put a LOT of the fruit puree into each bottle the fruit will typically settle to the bottom over time. Nothing a quick shake wont fix and it’s actually a great way to tell if you’re buying a full fruit juice as if it doesn’t have sediment then it’s likely made from concentrate.

Absolutely not. When you use fresh full fruit nature does that job for us. We’re often asked how we get the colours of our juices so vibrant and the simple answer is – we don’t do anything. Nature does it for us.

No. There simply isn’t enough organically grown fruit available in NZ to allow us to do so. We could if we went to concentrate – but that’s not in our DNA.

Benjer juices are shelf-stable for at least 2 years. While we cold-press and process all our fruit, when it goes in the bottle it is heated to approximately 85 degrees. This means that not only is there no need for preservatives, but we also achieve a fantastic shelf-life without any need for refrigeration.

We make our juices like jam – they go in the bottle at a very hot temperature. This means that when they cool (especially in the fridge) this can suck the cap on harder than we’d like – just like your typical jam jar. Usually once you give them a shake and a firm pat on the bottom the pressure can be reduced. If that doesn’t solve the problem then we’ve found by running the cap under a hot tap will usually do the trick.