Remember when juice used to come in giant metal cans, and you needed one of those special can openers that you used to punch two triangular shaped holes in the top? Well, you may have been drinking Hi-C. First appearing in 1946, Hi-C has been one of the top-selling products of Minute Maid (purchased in 1960 by The Coca-Cola Company) for decades. Hi-C comes in a variety of flavors, but is most known for its fruit punch (currently called Flashin' Fruit Punch). The names change as time passes, but the ingredients tend to remain the same. One particularly memorable flavor was Ecto Cooler featuring Slimer from the Ghostbusters. Today, there are nearly a dozen flavors, and while they don't come in big metal cans any more, they do come in juice boxes, gallon-sized plastic bottles, and even frozen juice pops.
Hi-C was so named because if its high concentration of vitamin C. Each serving contains 100% of the USDA Recommended Daily Allowance of the vitamin. While this selling point suckers in many parents who want to provide their children with a healthy drink, the fact is, there is more sugar in one serving of Hi-C than there is in most cola products, and only 10% real fruit juice.
Nutrition Facts1
Serving Size: 8 oz
Calories: 90-120
% Daily Values
Total Fat: 0 g 0%
Sodium: 140-150 mg 6%
Total Carbohydrates: 29-32 g 10-11%
Sugars 29-31 g
Protein: 0 g
Vitamin C: 100%
Not a significant source of calories from fat,
saturated fat, cholesterol, dietary fiber, Vitamin A,
calcium, or iron.
10% Fruit Juice
Ranges for some nutrients have been given to include
all flavors in product line. Please check packaging for
detailed nutrition information.
1 Nutritional information was from Minute Maid's web site (http://www.minutemaid.com), and refers to Hi-C packaged in the gallon sized bottles.