Juice Drink

One of the shelves in Samantha’s fridge door is stocked with juice bags. The brand name and flavor of the juice is printed in big bubble letters on the front of the package. It says, “Capri-Sun Pacific Cooler.” Centered beneath that, in small print, it goes on to describe the contents as a “flavored juice drink blend.” I imagine the precise phrasing of that line was very important to someone.

For each of the last few Christmases, I’ve received nicely packaged boxes of non-perishables from Hickory Farms. Among the sausage logs, tea bags, and crackers, there are always two long rectangular forms. One is orange, it’s label says, “Cheddar Cheese Food.” The other is gray, and the label says, “Swiss Cheese Food.” It’s not quite cheese, it’s cheese food. I point that out every year, and it’s starting to get old, which makes it a tradition.

Back to the Capri-Sun, (manufactured by a popular tobacco company, by the way). There’s a line squeezed in beneath “flavored juice drink blend”. It says, “From Concentrate.” “From Concentrate” is lined up with the left margin of the preceding line and is printed in a smaller font size, so that it lines up perfectly beneath the first two words in the previous line. “From Concentrate” seems to apply only to “Flavored Juice” and not to the entire phrase, “Flavored juice drink blend.” I believe that the bag contains “Flavored juice (from concentrate) drink blend”, rather than “Flavored juice drink blend from concentrate.” The positioning of the type leaves the true meaning of the words oblique. It could be interpreted either way.