Saved by Emma and Tom

Today I had agreed to walk up to the local shops with one of my neighbours for a long overdue coffee and catch-up.

What I had totally forgotten was, until we were halfway to the small shopping centre, that starting with breakfast today, I was well and truly on my way through another day of eating only Ausfood.

Well damn it!!

I was not about to turn back and I was not going to quit my Ausfood day and start all over tomorrow. There are now only four days left in March and I really can’t afford to fritter one of them away. Lessons to be learned here – start the Ausfood eating schedule early in the month – don’t leave it to the last minute.

The worst that could happen would be to sit with a glass of cold water in front of me on the table and quite possibly, Andy the barista might fall down in a dead faint on the floor when I do not order a coffee.

Neither of these worst case scenarios eventuated.

Inside the coffee shop, near the front door, sits the cold cabinet and inside it an array of cold drinks are on offer. At first glance it seems the only things available are all the usual soft drink and fruit juice suspects, who shall remain nameless. Closer examination, which means holding the fridge door open, which effectively blocks the doorway for new customers, and peering closely at the shelves brings a result.

I find a selection of Emma and Tom’s fruit juices; scanning the labels I consider my best option will be the Straight OJ - 100% orange juice. Turning the bottle around the words ‘made in Australia from the best ingredients we can find in Australia’ seal the deal. This orange juice will be the coffee replacement for today.

Emma and Tom save the day!!

In the Heat of the Afternoon

In the heat of the afternoon, when every right thinking person in town is indoors, away from the furnace like heat, I am wandering down the main street of Rutherglen in northern Victoria, searching for something to eat. I am lucky enough to discover a café where a young lad is outside stacking the pavement chairs and tables prior to closing; I slip in the door and place the last order of the day.
 
While I am waiting for my lunch order to arrive I take a drink from the fridge and return to the counter. Sitting at eye level on the counter in front of me is a display of some attractively presented bottles of fruit juice. I pick one up and examine it. There is a lot of printed detail on the bottle and after glancing at the front labelling which tells me I am holding a bottle of Noah’s Creative Juices, which in this case is an orange, apple, guava, banana, pineapple and paw paw juice Smoothie, I turn the bottle around and read the back.

In the list of ingredients the words Australia and Australian appear six times. I think I’m onto something here. When I ask the woman behind the counter where this juice is made she only knows that the people who own this café have another in Wodonga and the stock comes over to Rutherglen and they put it into the fridge. I walk across to the fridge, replace my first choice of drink and take a bottle of Noah’s Creative Juices.

Taking my lunch order, the drink and a straw I walk back out into the blazing sun. This not only allows the woman to finally close up the café, it allows me time to peruse the label at my leisure. Nearby, in an area set back a little from the street, I find a seat and a small patch of shade. There’s plenty to peruse on the label; so much in fact, that I wonder whether anyone ever reads all of it. I read all of it; every word, even the figures in the nutrition information block. I am impressed with the detail set out in the ingredients list; each ingredient is listed as either Australian or imported and the percentage of each ingredient is also listed. I discover there is Australian Valencia orange juice; Australian crushed apple juice; imported guava puree and imported banana puree; Australian carrot juice and Australian paw paw puree. And last but not least Vitamin C and flavour.

While this may not be the bottled fruit juice of my dreams, when it comes to all Australian content it is far ahead of those labels where the description simply reads ‘made from local and imported ingredients’. On this label you can identify the amount of local and the amount of imported ingredients. Well done in that regard Noah; I’m not too sure who Noah might be, as the company identified on the label is Baca Pty Ltd and the address is in Hawthorn Road Caulfield Victoria.

I eventually peel the label back, as is suggested on the bottle, and drink the juice. I like it, but then again, in temperatures like today, I’d probably like any drinks, whether they were juices or not. The 260 ml is about as much juice as I can drink in one sitting and I have only one minor quibble; it is about the peel off lid. Once you remove the lid you are not easily able, without the prospect of mishap, to stow the partly finished bottle in your handbag and drink the balance later.

According to the display pack on the counter in the café, there were two or three varieties and I will be on the lookout to see if I can find this brand somewhere when I return to Melbourne. Maybe they have a line that has fewer mixes of the juices and I might find one that has 100% Australian content.

I can always live in hope.

This is more like it.......

 Meandering around in the Local Green Supermarket, picking items up, reading the label and putting them back on the shelf, I came to a sudden stop while I was looking along the juice shelf.

I'm looking at a bottle of apple juice and this is what I see first.

 We're off to a flying start here with those stand-out words 100% Australian apples.  It doesn't come much better than that as far as I am concerned, although maybe I should qualify that as it is early days and I may become more difficult to please as time passes and I gather more variations on the theme.
I pick the bottle up and examine it closely. There is a short paragraph about the quantity of apples in the bottle but more importantly there is an additional line that informs the buyer that the contents are made in Australia from local juice.


 I put the bottle in my shopping basket immediately.

 While I am in What-Can-I-Drink? mode I move along to the tea section of the supermarket and here I have to look very carefully at labels.  It takes a little while but eventually I find this:

Nerada Australian tea,  grown in Queensland.   Here is another product to add to the list of Ausfoods. The packet of teabags joins the bottle of apple juice in the basket. There is much more to be said on the subject of tea and what is available in the Red and Green supermarkets. You can be sure I will have more to say about the matter of tea.



I am so impressed with the Nudie nothing but 5 apples labelling and I send off an email praising their efforts in the interests of clear labelling and Australian produce.  A reply states they try their best but some fruit, such as cranberries, have to come from other places.  Even Valencia oranges from time to time.

The lesson for me at this point, is to look for juice that contains only one type of fruit.  Today's juice drinkers seem to require many varieties of fruit and sometimes even vegetables, to be fitted into the one bottle.  In these cases it is highly likely the label will state Imported and local ingredients.

Look out for the dissertation on tea coming up before the end of January.