The popular Apple & Eve juice brand, commonly associated with school lunches, marks its 50th year with a vintage-inspired design throwback, while carrying reduced sugar products in response to public health concerns about children’s sugar consumption.
To mark the anniversary, Apple & Eve partnered with the agency Amp to release three throwback designs for its apple, Very Berry and fruit punch juice boxes.
A brand with history
Apple & Eve launched some of the first juice boxes in the United States in 1982. The first juice boxes came in apple and apple cranberry. Prior to juice boxes, the brand started with apple juice packaged in glass bottles. Today, apple remains its best-selling juice flavor.
Gordon Crane founded Apple & Eve in 1975. As of 2014, the brand is owned by the Canadian company Lassonde Industries, which was founded as a family vegetable cannery business in Rougemont, Quebec, more than a century ago.
“Our brand promises on bringing goodness to the table since 1975,” says Gabriela Arrillaga, general manager of US branded beverages at Lassonde Industries. She adds that “delicious flavors,” “joyful branding” and “everyday family moments” are key to Apple & Eve’s reputation.
The nostalgia factor
Apple & Eve’s target audience remains children and families, as it has been for decades, while still reaching new generations through “purposeful innovation,” says Arrillaga.
After all, it is not just children who delight in the juice boxes. Parents are in natural proximity and guiltless in partaking.
“[It] would be great for my son’s lunch if I didn’t drink them all before I could pack them,” wrote one Walmart customer in the reviews for Apple & Eve 100% Apple Juice, 6.75 fl oz, 8 Count.
Arrillaga says her favorite Apple & Eve flavor is Very Berry – by way of her daughter.
“My daughter calls it ‘the purple one,’” says Arrillaga, who adds that “bringing smiles to kids is the No. 1 priority.”
Today’s products
Apple & Eve products include its signature 100% juice in boxes and plastic bottles, plus a Sesame Street line (branded with the television show characters), Fruitables (combined fruit and vegetable juices), Organics (USDA-certified organic) and On-the-Go (reseable, shatter-proof bottles).
In a 32-count Apple & Eve juice box variety pack, available for bulk shopping at places like Costco, the customer will find 16 apple boxes, plus eight fruit punch and eight Very Berry. Each box contains 6.75 ounces of juice. The brand also has 4.24-oz. boxes for younger children or for consumers wanting to drink smaller quantities.
Responding to public health concerns
Apple & Eve’s anniversary comes at a time when experts recommend children drink less fruit juice.
In response, it launched Cool Waters in 2019 and, this year, a reduced sugar juice line with 50% less sugar. This product line features a reduced sugar juice drink from concentrate with other natural flavors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under the age of 1 year should not consume fruit juice, unless there is a clinical need to manage a child’s constipation. High sugar content in juice can lead to elevated calorie consumption and tooth decay, per AAP. Fruit juice lacks the fiber of whole fruit and, as a beverage, can be consumed faster than whole fruit, leading a child to possibly over-consume sugar.
“Fruit juice and fruit drinks are easily overconsumed by toddlers and young children because they taste good,” wrote APA authors in a 2017 report.
Arrillaga says that the reduced sugar product line is an effort to bring in new generations of customers while staying true to its base.
The Quebec-based parent company
Lassonde made a major capital investment last year that allowed many of the Apple & Eve juice boxes to be produced in the US for the first time, with a facility opened in North Carolina. Apple & Eve sources its fruit from all over the world.
Lassonde is a major player in the fruit and vegetable juice space – the biggest juice company in Canada and one of the biggest in North America. It owns Del Monte, Ruby Kist, SunRype, Old Orchard, Fruité and more. The company is also active in sauces, soups, broths and fruit snacks, as well as ciders and wines.
Public since 1987, Lassonde’s plants and facilities employ more than 2,700 people in Ohio, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington state and Arkansas, as well as locations in Canada.
