Fermented Orange Juice

Lacto-Fermented Orange Juice (an Orangina-like beverage)

• Take 1 quart mason jar.
• Add approximately 2 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (I cheated and bought the fresh squeezed oj at the store instead of juicing my own)
• Add 1/2 tsp powdered culture starter (or 2 tbsp whey)
• Fill with approximately 1 cup room temperature filtered water, leaving 1 inch or so of headspace.
• Cover tightly , give a quick shake to mix and leave at room temperature for 48 hours.
• Refrigerate and enjoy!
• Be sure to open carefully as gases do build up during fermentation!!

***Update: if your kitchen is warm, it may ferment faster. Look for pressure on your lid and bubbles. 48 hours worked fine in my 70 degree kitchen with halogen under-cabinet lights turned on.
Also, it really should be fresh squeezed orange juice, not from concentrate and not things like the refrigerated 100% juices. They may turn out tasting a bit different. Click here to read more on bottled orange juice.
Variations:

• I did the same process except used all oj (no water). This turned out great, but it fermented much quicker…24 hours. This was a little bit more ‘sparkly’ but I felt I could get more for my dollar by doing the recipe above with added filtered water.
• Instead of all orange juice, you could do a mix of mostly orange juice and add a bit of grapefruit, lemon and mandarin juice to get closer to the Orangina flavor.
• You could easily double this recipe and use a 1/2 gallon mason jar if you wish.
• If you like to imbibe every now and again, this is AMAZING with vodka