Fruit Juice
A general term for any fruit-derived juice used as a cocktail mixer.
Origin
A broad catch-all for pressed or extracted juice from any fruit, a practice going back centuries wherever fruit has been cultivated.
History
Fruit juice has flavored mixed drinks since long before commercial bottling made it a shelf-stable, year-round product in the 20th century, when pasteurization and refrigerated distribution turned juicing from a seasonal, local activity into a global industry. As a generic glossary category, "fruit juice" stands in for whichever specific juice a recipe calls for without naming an exact fruit, similar to "fruit" itself.
Flavor profile
Varies entirely by the specific fruit juiced.
Tasting notes
As a catch-all category, flavor depends entirely on which juice is actually used - the shared role across all fruit juices in a cocktail is adding sweetness, acidity, and real fruit character in liquid form.
Substitutes
- Whichever specific fruit juice best matches the recipe's other flavors.
- Freshly squeezed juice from the corresponding fruit, for a fresher alternative to a bottled version.
- A fruit syrup diluted with water, as an approximation when the specific juice isn't available.