Green Product Review: R.W. Knudsen Family Organic Juice Boxes

Product: R.W. Knudsen Family Sensible Sippers from R.W. Knudsen Family

Basics: Kid-friendly juice boxes for lunches or on-the-go. Available in four flavors apple, mixed berry, tropical and banana.

Ingredients: 50% USDA certified organic juice and 50% water. The water addition is meant to reduce sugar content. reducing the amount of sugar in each serving without compromising taste. Contains filtered water, organic juice concentrate, and organic natural flavor. Each box of juice is about 30-35 calories. There’s nothing funky in these juices like fake colors or preservatives, and ingredients for each flavor are listed in full at the website.

Cost: Comparable to other organic juice boxes (at my local grocery store at least) – you can also print out a coupon right now that’s good through September.

Reviewers: I got samples of apple and mixed berry and my taste testers included – my own son Cedar (eight years old), my best friend and her daughter Bella (two years), me (you don’t want to know how old).

What we thought:

Taste: my son loved the berry juice taste best but said apple was ok too. Oddly his comment was, “The berry juice tastes a million times more like apple than the apple juice and I LOVE it.” Take that as you will. Cedar was the only one who sided with berry on taste though. Bella, Bella’s mama, and me all liked apple best. I though the berry juice was a little odd, but not terrible, and Bella and her mama liked the berry fine but just enjoyed the apple more.

Size: WAY too small for a kid over three. My son can slurp one down in about three seconds. That’s not terrible because kids should drink more water, not more juice anyhow. But when you compare the packaging with the amount of juice the packaging seems excessive. I think the box is a good size for toddlers, maybe as a nice playgroup drink.

Eco-aspects:

The juices are organic so that’s obviously green, but R.W. Knudsen in general is not a totally organic company, which is not so green as it could be. Right now about half of their products are made with 95% or greater certified organic ingredients – not bad, but some companies are 100% organic.

The company is dedicated to minimizing their total environmental footprint through significant investments in energy efficiency at their facilities and by using clean renewable energy sources on site; so far the company has invested millions of dollars in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources which is cool.

In 2006 the company achieved a remarkable 96% recycling rate for production, meaning only 4% of stuff from their production facility is disposed via landfill. Not too shabby. You can recycle these aseptic juice boxes too. Check Earth 911 for details on where to recycle juice boxes.

HAPPY TREE SCORE:

Two and a half happy trees out of five. While I like the fact that these are organic and they scored high for good taste, I can’t justify the packaging involved for such a small amount of juice. Plus, in this small amount of juice, the nutritional benefits are almost non-existent.If you’re looking for a more nutritious juice box, I’d suggest trying the 100% juice boxes (in organic apple or pear) from Knudsen over the sippers, because they provide more vitamins.

As a reusable bottle advocate, I’d suggest you pack your child a reusable, safe, BPA-free bottle filled with water or organic juice before I’d recommend these juice boxes.

Who might benefit from these: In a pinch, if you need a fast toss in drink for a younger child’s lunch or a quick drink to take to a play group, I’d say these are far better and healthier than non-organic, full of preservative juice boxes. Just make sure your child understands that the box must be recycled.

What do you think? Do you ever pack juice boxes off with your child or do you stick to reusable bottles?