My brother and I grew up in the 1980s. A time when food covered in neon orange breadcrumbs was the norm (crispy pancakes anyone?). The juice we drank wasn’t fresh, but came in huge bottles and was essentially orange flavoured chemicals, designed to make children bounce off the walls and their teeth turn a funny colour and then fall out. Thankfully times have changed. As a nation we try and eat and drink good things, and as a parent I try and give those good things to my son.

We were sent a selection of juices to try from Appy Food and Drinks. I’d never heard of them before, so I did a little reading (I Googled them, no one reads anymore, sheesh). They’re a pretty new company, but they make all of the juices from natural ingredients and strive to make them low in calories, low in sugars (they sweeten with stevia) and free from artificial colours and flavourings. Their juices are approved by the Vegetarian Society, are vegan friendly and are approved by leading nutritionist Jenny Tschiesche.

We were sent four of their juice products to try –
Peppa Pig Apple & Summer Berries fruit drink (tetra pack)
SpongeBob SquarePants Orange & Pineapple fruit drink (tetra pack)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Apple & Blackcurrant fruit drink (pouch)
Dora the Explorer Mixed Berries fruit drink (pouch)

They were really colourful and obviously appealing to young children. Each day when I pick him up from the school nursery, I bring a drink for him to have while we walk home. I’m never really sure how much he’s had to drink while he’s there and I like him to have at least one portion of juice a day, as it counts towards his five a day.

Over a couple of weeks he tried them all, he really loved the Peppa Pig juice and the Turtles one, he liked Dora but was less keen on SpongeBob, but I think that’s because he doesn’t like pineapple, so I took one for the team and had those ones, they’re handy for taking out, for lunch boxes and the pouches stay cool for longer.

They were quite sweet and fruity, a bit too sweet for my own personal tastes, so we did decant a few into a big cup and water them down a little, which had the benefit of making them go a bit further. We’re used to watered down juices at home anyway. The juice boxes were a nice treat after a busy day at nursery and he liked showing off his Peppa Pig juice in the playground too.

Each 200ml juice box contains around 15 calories and the small boy really enjoyed them. I’ve seen them in Tesco’s and I believe you can also get them from Ocado and various other supermarkets and shops. They’re £1.99 for four juice boxes which seems a good price for something made to these standards, with no artificial colours, flavourings and natural sugars.

The packaging is incredibly attractive to children, I think the Peppa Pig one is his favourite because he really loves Peppa. The boxes the drinks come in have various cut out and colour in activities which does add a bit of value and interest. It’s all recyclable too.

We do really like the Appy drinks, I think we’ll buy them as and when we see them for our walk home from nursery. They are on the sweet side, but I find most drinks aimed at children are these days anyway. My tip is to water them down, it makes them go further and dilutes some of the sweetness.

Note: We were sent these juices from Appy Food & Drink free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.