Yes, flash frozen juice is better by a country mile. The first thing that you need to realize is that the question itself is flawed. The actual question should be “Is indoor grown wheatgrass juiced on the spot better than outdoor grown wheatgrass juice that is flash frozen”. The key here is actually “indoor grown vs outdoor grown.” Juice from outdoor grown wheatgrass is vastly superior to juice from grasses grown like a potted plant in the greenhouse.
Why Our Juice Is The Best Choice
- Higher quality
- Better taste and tolerability
- It is convenient without compromise
- Next day availability
- Small start-up cost
- Economical prices allowing continuous use
- You can’t grow during winter months in northern locations
- Definitely the best solution for high volume drinkers and large families
The first thing that you need to know is that freezing does not damage the nutrition, enzymes, etc. in food. You can read up a little on freezing at the USDA Freezing and Food Safety.
What freezing does is dramatically slow down molecular activity, it doesn’t stop or kill it. The lower the freezer temperature, the slower the molecular activity and better quality of the food. Our juice is kept at a frigid -15F and the quality of the juice is just fantastic.
In terms of wheatgrass juice, it is a significantly better frozen product than it is fresh. This goes against conventional thinking so please read through this entire section and you will be very surprised by what you learn.
Field Growing Advantages
- Root system grows 6x deeper
- Growth cycle is 10x longer
- Chlorophyll levels are 50% higher
- Simple sugars are eliminated
- There are no detectable molds
- The juice tastes dramatically better
The Problem With Greenhouse Growing
- Everyone knows that plants have some instincts such as turning toward the sun
- Not many people know that plants also have a survival instinct
- When conditions dangerous to the plant are sensed, the plant changes its life cycle. Specifically, the plant will speed its growth processes in order to go to flower and drop its seed. The intention is survival and the hope for better conditions for the next generation.
- Indoor grown wheatgrass lives in shallow plastic trays and the environment is hostile to the plant (considering the terrible matting of the root system)
- As a result, the plants survival instinct is triggered and it seeks to flower which dramatically speeds up the growth of the plant
- Indoor grown wheatgrass grows to harvesting height of 7″ – 11″ in just 10 days
- Outdoor grown wheatgrass grows to the same harvesting height in 60 – 120 days
- The short life cycle leaves the plant in an immature state, far short of its potential and full of simple sugars
The Mold Issue In The Greenhouse
- While tray growing may be hostile towards wheatgrass, it is very supportive of molds
- Molds release peculiar little poisons called mycotoxins of which there are over 400 different types
- Mycotoxins are unusual because they don’t affect everyone in the same way every time. In addition tolerance to them decreases over time.
- The molds can make the juice taste terrible and mycotoxins can cause side effects like nausea, dizziness and headaches.
- The typical experiences of a drinker of moldy wheatgrass juice\
- People normally start with very low expectations regarding the taste
- The first time they drink it slowly and think that wasn’t so bad
- After doing this for a while, they start to shoot the shot
- At some point, they move to holding their nose and shooting the shot
- Later on (sometimes days later, sometimes months later) the put a glass to their lips and just can’t drink it
- They normally never have wheatgrass juice again
- Wheatgrass juice properly grown tastes nice, so please don’t let this happen to you
- If you have had a bad wheatgrass juice experience, you just have try our juice. It will amaze you.
The Power Of Flash Frozen Foods
- First, read up on freezing from the U.S. Department Of Agriculture
- Flash frozen fruits and vegetables do not lose their potency because flash freezing is dramatically different than slow freezing
- When you slow freeze something in your freezer at home, large ice crystals form and the food gets torn up from the inside out causing them to thaw with significantly different characteristics than when they entered the freezer.
- Flash frozen foods are frozen with an overwhelming amount of cold which causes rapid freezing and prevents the formation of large ice crystals.
- As a result, the food maintains its taste, texture, colour and nutrition.
- In reality, most frozen foods are actually better than fresh because they are harvested at their peak and flash frozen rather than being picked green and ripening inside their shipping containers
Why Wheatgrass Juice Works So Well When Frozen
Our wheatgrass comes from winter wheat which actually lives through the winter. It can survive the winter and spring back to life (in the spring) due to special ice structuring proteins which keep the juice raw and living while frozen. While I’d never have frozen barley juice (which does not survive the winter), wheatgrass is a fantastic flash frozen product. These proteins are unique to winter wheat and have been used for other purposes as well. For instance, this article talks about how these proteins are used to smooth the texture of ice cream.
By the way, one of nature’s other ice structuring protein miracles can be seen in the common wood frog. These frogs freeze solid every winter and then in the spring, come back to life, mate and the cycle continues. See the video here.
