Super Juice: How to Turn 1 Lemon into 9 Ounces of Juice
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Active Time: under 10 minutes (plus a 1 hour rest)
Makes: about 9 ounces of juice from 1 lemon
Keeps: freshest the first 2 weeks, up to 4 weeks refrigerated
Squeeze a lemon and you get about 1 ounce of juice. The peel goes in the trash, and almost all of the flavor goes with it.
Super juice changes that. With one lemon, a Mason jar, and a few pantry staples, you get 9 ounces of juice with the same acid content as fresh squeezed and an oil content 3 to 4 times more potent. Not just more juice, but more flavorful juice, from the same fruit. All natural, no sugar, no waste, and it costs pennies per ounce.
I know how that sounds. It is not a gimmick, and the chemistry behind it is actually pretty fun.
What Is Super Juice?
The flavor of citrus lives in the peel. Those oils you smell when you zest a lemon? That is the good stuff, and most of us throw it away. Super juice uses a cold extraction technique called oleo citrate to pull those oils into the juice using the same acids that already exist in the fruit. Nothing gets heated and nothing artificial is added.
Some very smart people reinvented this method after it disappeared from common use. Nickle Morris, Kevin Kos, Dave Arnold, and Darcy O'Neil developed it for bartending, and they clearly delighted in making the chemistry easy to understand. I don't drink alcohol, but I was excited to make it anyway because I could see uses for it all over my menu plan. The catch is that their instructions start with weighing your peels in grams. The minute a recipe requires a gram scale, most American kitchens are out.
So I simplified it. For months I tested measuring spoon ratios against the original formulas, checked my batches with a pH meter, and made it with groups of friends and family until anyone could follow the recipe. The version below needs one fruit, one jar, ordinary measuring spoons, and less than 10 minutes of active time.
What You Need
Organic fruit only. You are using the whole fruit, peel included, so this matters.
- Citric acid
- Potassium citrate
- Malic acid (for lime and orange)
This is not as scary as it sounds. These are food grade products, easy to find, inexpensive, and useful to have in the house for all kinds of things. I was surprised to learn that people take malic acid with magnesium as a supplement. Some even add it to water because they love the sour taste! Just keep all of them away from children.
Helpful tools:
- Pint Mason jar with a lid
- Citrus peeler (a paring knife works too)
- Handheld citrus juicer
- Immersion blender or regular blender
- Fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth
- Washi tape for labeling
The Super Juice Recipes
One simple chart. No scale required.
| Lemon | Lime | Orange | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citrus | 1 organic lemon | 1 organic lime | 1 organic orange |
| Citric acid | 1 Tablespoon | 1 teaspoon | 1 teaspoon |
| Potassium citrate | ⅛ teaspoon | ⅛ teaspoon | ¼ teaspoon |
| Malic acid | none | ½ teaspoon | ⅛ teaspoon |
| Water | 1 cup | ¾ cup | 1¼ cups |
How to Make It
Careful! Citrus and acids will etch natural stone countertops, so please work on a cutting board or butcher block.
- Start with room temperature fruit. Roll it on the counter to release the juice, then wash and peel it. Peels in small bits coat better and release more flavor.
- Put the peels in a pint Mason jar with the citric acid (plus malic acid and potassium citrate, per the chart). Cap it, shake well, and leave it for one hour. The acid pulls the oils right out of the peel.
- After the hour, juice the fruit. Add the juice, peels, and acid mixture to a blender, and use the measured water to rinse every last bit out of the jar into the blender. Blend on high for one minute.
- Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a clean Mason jar.
- Cap the jar, label it with washi tape (contents and date), and refrigerate. It is freshest the first 2 weeks and keeps up to 4. I tried juice past 4 weeks and didn't like the flavor, though it did a fine job cleaning the garbage disposal!
What to Do With 9 Ounces of Lemon Juice
Super juice works anywhere regular citrus juice does. A few favorites:
- Lemonade. ½ cup super juice, ½ cup honey or organic sugar, and 3 cups water makes a quart. Here is our full fresh lemonade recipe with mint ice cubes.
- Citrus mint hibiscus tea. ¼ cup of super juice brightens a quart of iced herbal tea.
- Guacamole and pico de gallo. A couple teaspoons keeps everything bright, and a spray of lemon super juice keeps guac from browning.
- Salad dressings and marinades. Anywhere you would use lemon or lime juice.
- Fruit preserver spray. Mix with ascorbic acid in a Mason jar sprayer to keep cut fruit from browning.
We put all of these recipes, plus desserts, a produce wash, and a complete plan for hosting your own Super Juice Party, into our free ebook.
Get the free Super Juice ebook with 10+ recipes, the printable formula chart, and the geeky science for those who want it.
👉 Click here to get the free ebook
The Right Lid for the Job
- POUR lid: controlled pouring for finished super juice, and it seals tight in the fridge.
- FLIP cap: perfect for the 1 hour peel rest (shake with the cap on) and for everyday access.
- Sprayer: turns leftover super juice into a fruit preserver or produce wash sprayer.
Credit Where It's Due
The modern super juice technique comes from the bartending world: Nickle Morris made the original video, Kevin Kos made a fun summary, Dave Arnold wrote Liquid Intelligence, and Darcy O'Neil created the improved version with potassium. If you want the deep chemistry, start there. If you just want great juice without a gram scale, you are already in the right place.
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