Coca-Cola Discontinues Iconic Minute Maid Inaugural Product

Nostalgic fans of the 20th Century have shared their dismay over the The Coca-Cola Co. announcement that it would be phasing out and discontinuing all of its Minute Maid frozen juice concentrate products over the first quarter of 2026, according to numerous news reports.

Minute Maid itself earned its brand name as a nod to the convenience and ease of preparation of the orange juice, according to the company’s history site. The frozen juice products were known well to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who grew up through the second half of the 1900s — frozen juice concentrates were originally created in the 1940s for the Army, to give soldiers a more palatable way to consume their required ration of Vitamin C.

For many consumers, mixing the juice slush log (after working to get it out of the can in a satisfying sloosh) in water until it dissolved was an early childhood memory. Until the 1970s, when refrigerated orange juice products were introduced, frozen orange juice concentrates were the easiest way consumers could get orange juice (without squeezing the oranges at home).

However, declining demand for the product in recent decades — and overarching “standard” juice trends in general — sealed the frozen concentrate line’s fate, the reports noted. The entire line of Minute Maid frozen juices will be discontinued, the company said.

“We are discontinuing our frozen products and exiting the frozen can category in Canada in response to shifting consumer preferences,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told Good Housekeeping magazine.