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I love adding store bought lemon juice to the water I drink at work. Are there any recommended brands? I am just using the cheap aldis brand. Any ideas on calories - the label has 1 tsp as a serving size with 0 calories.

I like hot water with lemon in the morning, instead of tea or coffee.

I use store brand, myself. I know fresh squeezed is recommended, but produce is horrible around here and bottled lemon juice is much more convenient for me and keeps a long time.

The only problem I have with it is a sensitivity to the preservative (sodium benzoate) they use in it. I just get lemons when on sale (or help pick from an overloaded tree) and freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I've got a big gallon bag of lemon cubes in my freezer for use in recipes and drinks.

Jeff Novick, IIRC, used Minute Maid frozen lemon juice in his hummus. (Fast Food DVD Vol. 1)

I've been using it for years. Great for my tea. Not quite as good as fresh squeezed, but very close. Far superior to the bottled or "squeeze lemon" stuff with preservatives.

Buy it frozen where you see frozen orange juice concentrate. Requires refrigeration.

does the store bought lemon juice contain oil? it says it contains lemon oil, not sure what that is. Can you use minute maide juice in place of fresh lemon? It's not a soft drink right?

Interesting about that frozen lemon juice. I've never seen that, but I've never looked either. Would it be by the frozen fruit beverage concentrates in mainstream grocery stores or only in natural food stores like Wild Oats? Anyone know?

Same amount of lemon oil, if any, as fresh lemon juice. It is not a soft drink. It is reconstituted lemon juice from concentrate with no sweeteners of preservatives.

Just like reconstituting orange juice from frozen concentrate and water, as I used to do.

Think of it as the juice of seven lemons in a seven ounce bottle. Take it home, thaw in the fridge, and use for eight weeks -- if it lasts that long.

I buy it in WalMart and regular supermarkets. Never had a problem finding a store that carries it. Usually right next to the 6 or 12 oz containers of frozen orange juice concentrate.

Look for a 7" tall rectangular box with a picture of the lemon juice bottle like at the link in my earlier post.

Bottle has a cap that screws off, but also a kind of tilt cover to a hole that lets you easily get a few drops or TB, as required, and repeatedly reseal.

Very handy stuff.

Thanks, secdroid. Adding it to my weekend list.

This is why I buy the smallest bottle of store brand - the juice *does* last that long, because I rarely use it, so the bottle usually gets outdated long before it's even half empty. Even those tiny lemon-sized squeeze bottles I had to toss out when I discover them weeks after their use-by date. When a recipe calls for a teaspoon of juice, even 4 ounces goes a long way.

I've found for a lot of recipes that call for lemon juice I can substitute apple cider vinegar, fwiw. Some I only need about half as much acv as I would need lemon juice to get the same 'zing' (like hummuses and faux cheeses), some I use the same amount (like to create some air in baked goods), some I just would not substitute -like zucchini bread, or for a sweet lemon sauce/glaze. I didn't know about the pure frozen lemon juice, everything I had seen was sweetened or else the ones in the lemon that seem to have an off taste to me and I can never use those fast enough and I didn't even think about freezing the juice in ice cubes, great ideas, glad I checked this thread!

Forgot to mention that I use a fair amount of lemon. I was raised in a home where we put lemon juice on spinach and fish, as well as adding it to tea.

After giving up butter and margarine, as well as significantly reducing my use of salt, I found that I really like adding lemon juice, at the table, to -- most cooked green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (sometimes) and pea/bean soups (brightens the taste -- like using it in hummus).

Also Mexican food, if I don't have any fresh limes. (In Mexico, lime wedges are served with many entrees. Brilliant!)

Better lemon/lime as a table condiment than sat fat, trans fat, or salt.

While I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice (and use zest in recipes), the Minute Maid frozen is so darn convenient that I have been a steady customer for a long time. Frozen makes a big difference; those preservatives in the shelf-stable juice taste really nasty.

My ratings: fresh lemon = 10, Minute Maid = 9, shelf-stable w/preservatives = -3!

I've made frozen cubes of lemon juice at home before, but I never heard of the packaged frozen lemon juice and generally don't go around the frozen juices, but now that I'm aware it exists I'll try to keep an eye open for it. I've tried the bottled (Real Lemon?) as well as the lemon and lime in the little plastic squeeze containers that you find in the produce aisle. I like fresh much better. It just seems...uh...fresher. My mother likes bottled lemon and says it tastes just the same to her. Maybe I'm weird.