“Orange Julius is a chain of fruit drink beverage stores that has been in the business since the late 1920s.” Thank you Wikipedia for improving my general knowledge almost every single day!
As a kid, I used to see Orange Julius in a lot of malls but I never got a chance to try it back then. I guess, I never saw the need to ask mom for a couple of dollars for a drink especially when she was juggling a job and working hard to put food on our table, paying our school fees..etc. Not forgetting the late nights baking she used to do, to earn extra income. Yes, my mom is a superwoman. She was a working mom but she would still cook for us daily on top of the housework and sending me to my school van at 6am. My mom was a full hands on mom. She single handedly brought up all 4 of us.
As a kid, me and my siblings were not exposed to fast-food that much. When dad was still alive, he used to take us out for dinner almost every weekend. However, we used to eat “real food” outside. Chinese noodles, steaks, seafood dishes but we rarely had fast-food. After dad’s demise, mom would cook most of our meals as finances were tight and obviously fast food was never cheap. Back then a set meal of Mcdonalds would cost us about 4-5 bucks I reckon? That would be equivalent to a whole chicken that mom would be able to cook and feed us four siblings. I totally understand her theory now. We used to get occasional treats from our aunts though.
My fondest memories of fast food as a kid would be my brother bringing a bag of chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken and mom would place those on a tray and reheat it in the oven. When I was in my early teens, my third brother used to work part time at KFC and we got to eat KFC almost every other day. It was a luxury indeed! This is so ironic but now that I can afford to drink as much orange Julius as I want, I am not able to find a store nearby! I believe there are very few Orange Julius stores left as it is now the trend of the Bubble tea.
When I saw a recipe for Orange Julius Copycat in a book, I just had to give it a try. The recipe was really easy and it barely took five minutes. Okay maybe with cleaning up, it WOULD take five minutes. You just have to chuck everything in a blender/food processor and that’s it! If you are not sure how the orange juice concentrate looks like, you can refer to the picture below. I got mine from COLD STORAGE for 10 dollars.
Image Source: Google
This 5 minutes Orange Julius recipe makes a creamy, frothy, and refreshing drink that is difficult to resist. My mom loved it and had two glasses of these. I loved it as well but more importantly, it was a reminisce of my childhood. Not that I can afford to buy everything in life now but I am grateful that life is better than what is used to be. 🙂
- 1 cup orange juice concentrate
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup fine sugar (I used slightly less than this)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 12 ice cubes
- Put all ingredients in a blender, cover and blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately.
I am sipping some french press right now but a good smoothie is very nice on a hot summer afternoon. I want to swim in this.
A wonderful tribute to your mom and a great recipe. Thank you for sharing.