From Grove to Glass with Tropicana

By Lee Funke

Published 4/4/2017 • Updated 4/14/2020

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This job of mine keeps getting cooler and cooler. Never in a million years would have I have guessed that my day job would bring me to an orange grove in the middle of the week! I’m excited to be giving you guys a recap of my recent trip to Sarasota with Tropicana, my favorite OJ!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Tropicana. I was compensated and all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Fit Foodie Finds!

The event was hosted at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, FL. Talk about a beautiful property. One of my favorite parts about event trips is that I get to meet other wonderful bloggers who do what I do. This time there were 8 other women from all around the county. It was such a fantastic group of girls and I loved getting to know other bloggers who weren’t specifically in the food and fitness industry. Plus, I got to meet my longtime girl crush, Julie from PB Fingers who is one of the reasons why I started blogging over 6 years ago. I can’t believe it’s taken us 6 whole years to meet!

• Julia from Lemon Stripes
• Gina from Running to the Kitchen
• Davida from The Healthy Maven
• Hallie from Among Other Things
• Cara from Cara Loren
• Julie from PB Fingers
• Taralynn from Simply Taralynn
• Myka from Myka Stauffer

This trip was a quick one. We got in Monday night and the event ended Tuesday afternoon! We were greeted with a vitamin-c facial at the Ritz spa. This was only my second facial ever and it was fantastic. We did a hydration test to see how hydrated our skin was and I’m happy to say that I am pretty hydrated…minus the area around my eyes. Who woulda thunk! Post facial, we showered off and it was time to have the most magical dinner of my life.

Amazing “Orange” Inspired Dinner

The dinner Tropicana put on at the Ritz Sarasota had to of been the highlight of this trip. They partnered with the chefs at the hotel to create an entire menu with an orange twist (pun intended). From the cocktails, to the appetizers, to the main course, to the dessert — everything had a little hint of orange and I’m obsessed! Scroll down and look at how beautiful the table setting was. Like WHAT? I want my wedding to look like this one day! Plus, i am all about orange + greenery. The amount of succulents on the table made my heart happy 🙂

I was seated next to Julie and Davida (it was random, I swear I didn’t creepily sit next to Julie and find my way to Davida). So, I’m obsessed with the Citrus Mule they had as one of the signature drinks. Moscow Mules are my jam, it’s what I order when I go out. Instead of allthelime, this mule had alltheorange. Heart heart heart times a million. For dinner, I had the beef because why not? Dessert was a delicious flan-like cake which I could eat every day of my life.

Grove to Glass

Tuesday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn to have a delicious breakfast spread at the Ritz before jumping on a bus to the groves! Can I just say that I’ve never smelled anything more delicious than an orange grove. It’s like I had my essential oil diffuser pumping orange like woah. This trip reminded me a lot of my avocado tour with Avocados from Mexico because we got to be right in the groves with the farmers! I wish everyone had the amazing experience of seeing how orange juice goes from the groves to the glass! It really opens up your eyes to to see the amount of people that touch a single orange! Plus, Tropicana is celebrating their 70th anniversary of making their OJ, which is nuts.

Tropicana harvests their oranges with local farmers in Florida. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of square miles of oranges. They’re actually the number one buyer of Florida fruit! Oranges are harvested at their peak ripeness because immediately after they are picked they are sent to the factory to be cleaned, squeezed, and packaged! Once they are picked the oranges become orange juice within just 24 hours to ensure they don’t over ripen because this can alter their flavor, which is no bueno. Imagine the logistics of this with so many groves of oranges! That takes practice and science.

Once the oranges arrive at the OJ making plant they are cleaned and actually stripped of their oils, which are eventually blended back in. Next, the oranges are squeezed and then flash pasteurized with nitrogen for shelf stability. If you’re wondering what this means, basically Tropicana uses nitrogen to help preserve color and flavor inside of their juices. BTW – there is nitrogen in the air and NOTHING else is added to the juice. That’s right, it’s 100% oranges in there people. I think that’s the best part about Tropicana Orange Juice…nothing beats 100% oranges. No added sugar, no added nothing!

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So, tell me…are you a pulp girl or no pulp girl?