Orange coffee as in orange juice in the coffee is a powerful tasting combo. You may be scratching your head wondering how that odd combo is… that works unlike other citrus.
Below I share a couple orange photo inspiration as to what brought this on me…
And I understand if you need a ‘lil nudge because we’re used to separate cups and glasses for the two drinks.
Part of a popular American breakfast has both OJ and coffee.
But you gotta admit adding orange juice to your coffee sounds convenient (one less cup). ☕️
If you’re at a breakfast buffet, it’s one last cup you have to carry.
I’d say… also a smart idea that makes sense for boosting the immune system during holiday travel season… and calming anxious moods that oranges do. It’s good to carry one on ya!
Plus, orange 🍊 adds a nice flavor to your black coffee. Think of it like orange and chocolate or cocoa… another drink idea. 💭
Oranges brighten up your cup o’ joe choices.
And if you’re a Vata, you love the variety and oranges!
In a cup of coffee ☕️, the orange flavor comes through nicely… half orange (or at least 1/3) to half coffee makes it a brightened, pleasant taste…
The best way is with liquid orange juice you can freshly squeeze or mix with prepared juice. You can also use orange zest if you don’t mind the solid textures.
Those are the best ways for the zesty flavor punch to come through.
…Cold brew coffee has less acidity than regular brewed coffee ways. And fresh orange juice has less acidity than concentrated juices you would buy at the grocery stores.
If acidity is a concern, you can add spices like cinnamon and ginger to help tone down and counteract effects.
The caffeine in coffee btw is loaded with antioxidants that are good for not only quick cognitive reasons, but also improving heart health.
We all love that! ❤️🔥
And when you use fresh whole oranges, you bypass sugar added to processed orange juice from concentrate.
You get the Vitamin C and A antioxidants plus minerals and fiber.
Orange juice sales ramp up in the cooler winter months when people are thinking about ramping up on Vitamin C for cold and flu season.
And as helpful nature would have it, oranges are winter fruits.
That’s a great way to start the morning!
They support happy hormones and reducing stress hormones. Gotta love that too! 😀
Your choice of orange is based on your preference and where you are.
For a sweeter orange, you could select a blood orange, navel orange, or a Cara Cara orange.
You can also sometimes find oranges year-round depending on if there’s a good sunshine season.. That’s why Florida and California are the abundant king and queen orange states. ☀️
A Florida orange has thinner skin than California navel, and are more like Valencia oranges that are the most common kind internationally and around the world.
You can tell where you are located just by the oranges in the stores and trees. 🍊
…Like these Spanish ohh-ahh orange trees I saw. Can you imagine these fresh ones for breakfast?
I had my first Sevilla orange for the first time years ago and it was coffee life changing. That was one of the years I spent Thanksgiving overseas.
And then back home n the States, had Sevilla orange coffee that was inspired by my fun visit to Spain.
Fresh orange juice is a popular, year-round favorite. In the winter, oranges are in season, so you can find an abundance of oranges.
That’s also when most people load up on Vitamin C that they associate with orange juice, and why orange juice grocery shelves can be full or running empty.
And summer is a popular time too as it’s served in vacation towns and resorts.
I share below how you can optimize an entire orange in homemade fresh orange juice squeezed by hand.
If you’re inspired by fresh juices, this is a smart idea to save money, be healthy, and enjoy conveniently at home.
And speaking of enjoyment, last week I had a nice surprise.
I won a gift card to a local smoothie place I’m inspired by. They are my inspiration for tropical smoothies.
One day I saw someone coming out of a yoga studio in my town who was carrying this mermaid blue color bowl that’s the size of a large yogurt container.
I had to find out what this healthy ingredient is!
I learned it comes from an ingredient called blue majik (that’s the magic in the blue bowl). 🥣
The South Block smoothie chain also uses ingredients like camu camu and maca root.
You feel like you’ve been invited to a new array of rainforest superfoods shipped from an exotic locale in the world and infused in your made-to-order bowl or smoothie.
It’s dreamy, no?
OK, I could go on and on excited!…
But, today I also wanted to share how you can optimize oranges in a house-made fresh orange juice.
I’ve become super sensitive to how much sugar I consume and that’s healthy motivation.
And that hopefully inspires you to think healthy food and drinks at least most of the time (as it does for me).
Next time you think about getting orange juice from the store, consider making your own fresh orange juice from whole oranges where there’s no added sugar.
Fresh Orange Juice
Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)
And oranges are one of my favorite fruits as I love the smell of oranges. Here’s why…
They are good for calming anxiety, aromatherapy, and if you’re leaning into the Vata mind-body ways or wanting to restore any Vata imbalance.
If you can’t get the work life balance or life is stressful, keeping an orange near you to sniff and that’ll help calm you.
And making fresh orange juice will also in its healthy-balancing effects.
And if you feel it in your nervous digestive tract, you can try an orange elixir like this recipe:
5 Spice blend (Five spice is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper) - (amount adjustable to liking)
water (dilute as needed)
Instructions
Zest and peel an orange. Keep all the parts. Tip: use navel, Cara Cara, blood, or heirloom oranges. They are good for the calming (and good for parasympathetic nervous system also affecting good digestion).
Squeeze the pulp into your orange juice container (or enjoy).
Add your zest and peels to the container.
Add five-spice blend.
Add apple cider vinegar
Fill up with water. Shake and refrigerate. Enjoy when you have an upset stomach.
There are so many orange varieties to choose from. I love the Cara Cara sweetheart orange variety (common around Christmas) that can be juicier and sweeter than a California navel orange that’s in season a little earlier.
Plus fresh orange juice makes me think of my second home, staying in nice hotels! Once upon a time I worked in hotel catering management where I got my first taste.
And you may have seen out and about those gigantic commercial machines that crank out fresh orange juice from whole oranges. That would be a fun job for a day!
You may have seen one of these at selective grocery stores if you live in a larger metro area.
Fresh orange juice definitely ruined me for any added sugar orange juice that comes from a carton (like I grew up drinking).
Concentrated is high sugar and harsh on the stomach, and especially along with a morning coffee routine that Americans commonly do. That’s double acidity.
👉 You can opt for making your own organic cold brew coffee and diluting orange juice with water.
So let’s begin and get your fresh orange juice-on!
For equipment, you can use a citrus squeezing tool, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools because it’s bright yellow so I have no choice but to be sunny with the brightening citrus when I use it 😉.
And a zester microplane tool that looks like a zester.
These are the parts of the orange.
Orange Zest (essence). Before I cut into the orange for orange juice, I go around the orange peel, grating, and capturing all the outside orange zest as essence for zhughing up other sweet morning smoothies, dishes, and garnishes (that’s where my former-catering mind goes and yours can go wild too!).
Orange Pith. Most people throw the spongy, slightly bitter part out, but consider keeping.
This would good in the orange digestif recipe mentioned already.
The orange pith is high in Vit C (as is the juicy pulp) and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. For those reasons alone, it’s worth considering mixing in foods and drinks/smoothies.
Plus leaving no traces of fruit is good for not attracting critters. 😉
Orange Juice and Pulp. Then cut the orange in half (perpendicular to the top or the stem or from left to right).
I know it’s tempting to cut the orange any which way since it’s perfectly round, but cutting the right way lets you cut through each orange segment to maximize juice.
Otherwise you could get stuck on a pillowy-feeling orange segment.
Now you’re ready to squeeze each orange half or use a citrus squeezer tool, and squeeze away the juice into a tall glass.
Let go of all your stress squeezing oranges. Activating calming oranges around you is a relaxing sensory exercise.
Keep repeating until you have the amount of juice you want. Add back pulp as desired if you like high pulp juice.
You can also add some water to dilute some or stretch the juice out for more.
And enjoy!
No-Waste Eco-Friendly Ideas: Save the orange pulp if you prefer high-pulp OJ and add small orange pieces to your drink.
Save the seed to grow a plant. Save the pulp and zest for cooking and baking recipes. Save the pith that has the most nutrients for digestifs and foods. Save the orange sticker as a reminder for getting the Produce LookUp (PLU) item again. 😉
If you like fresh juices, you may want to give Fresh Peach Juice and Mango Juice other sunny yellow inspiring fruity juices a GO.
