Frozen Delivery
What to do if your juice arrives thawed
Short version, in case that's all you need: if your bottles still feel cool to the touch when they arrive, they are absolutely fine. Put them in the freezer and carry on as normal. The longer version, for anyone who likes to know why, is just below.
Why juice sometimes arrives soft or thawed
Everything we make travels frozen and packed with ice, but juice is mostly water and it will start to soften on a warm journey. In winter it usually reaches you still frozen or barely thawed. In summer and especially during a heatwave, it can arrive properly defrosted even with several ice packs in the box. That is normal. It isn't a fault and it isn't a sign the juice has spoiled. It just means the weather won the argument with the ice packs, which in July it sometimes does.
Is it cool to touch?
Forget thermometers, use your hands. When the box arrives, feel the bottles. If they're cool to the touch, like something from the fridge, the juice has stayed in the safe range the whole way. Put them straight in the freezer and they'll keep exactly as they should.
But your site says not to refreeze
This is the bit that trips people up, so here it is plainly. The advice not to refreeze is about a completely different situation. Two things can happen to a bottle.
The first is that it thaws on the way to you but stays cool. It has never warmed up, so freezing it again is completely safe. This is the one you get in summer and it's absolutely fine.
The second is that you take a bottle, defrost it in the fridge on purpose and drink from it over a day or two. That bottle is now a fresh juice with its own short life. It has warmed to fridge temperature and been opened, so we'd rather you simply finished it than put it back in the freezer.
The deciding factor is temperature and time, not the freezing itself. Cool and recently thawed, freeze away. Warmed up and sitting open for a few days, treat it as the fresh drink it has become.
Why we do it this way at all
It's a fair question to ask why we don't just send it chilled like everyone else and avoid all this. The answer is that chilled, longer-life juice has almost always been treated to survive the journey, usually heated or put under high pressure, which changes it. We would rather not touch the juice at all. Freezing is the only way we've found to get raw, untreated juice to your door without cooking it or processing it. A bottle that arrived slushy has still only spent a day or two out of deep freeze. A treated juice on a supermarket shelf has been sitting there for weeks. Even on its worst summer day, ours is the fresher product. If you'd like the full reasoning, it's in is frozen juice as good as fresh?
The quick version
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Arrived cool to touch | Freezer, as normal. |
| A bottle you defrosted yourself to drink | Keep it cold and finish it, don't refreeze that one. |
| Unsure about anything at all | Email contact@recoveryjuice.co.uk, we're glad to help. |
Frequently Asked
My juice arrived thawed. Is it still safe?
Yes, as long as the bottles still feel cool to the touch when they arrive. Cool juice that thawed in transit has stayed in the safe range and can go straight into the freezer.
Can I refreeze juice that thawed on the way?
Yes, provided it's still cool. A bottle that softened or thawed in transit but is still cold to hold can be frozen again with no problem. The one we ask you not to refreeze is a bottle you've deliberately defrosted in the fridge and had open for a day or two, because by then it's a fresh juice that should be kept cold and finished.
Why does it arrive frozen and not chilled?
Because freezing is the only way to send raw, untreated juice without heating or processing it. Chilled juice with a long shelf life has usually been treated to survive it. Ours travels frozen and untouched, so even when it softens on a warm journey it has spent a day or two out of the freezer rather than weeks on a shelf.
Just ask us
If you're ever unsure, please don't pour anything away and please don't worry. Reply to your order email or drop us a line at contact@recoveryjuice.co.uk and we'll help you work out exactly what to do with your delivery.