This one was just a happy coincidence. I was walking through the Shop-Rite a few weeks ago, and just happened to see a display pile of some drinks. The spelling on the bottle read "arancia," and "frutta," which I assumed was a foreign language. And a closer look at the label revealed it was--Italian. So I snapped up a bottle. This was some orange juice from the Santal brand.
Santal is the fruit-based drink brand of the Paramalat S.p.A. company. It has several different categories of drinks. Their Desserts of Nature line includes flavors like Natura Apple Cake, Natura Blood Orange Cake, and Natura Orange Cake. The Classics are basic fruit juices, such as those made from pears, peaches, pineapples, and blonde oranges (which I'd never heard of, but a little checking indicated that they are a subtype of oranges, grown in Italy, which have a yellow skin and a sweet and juicy pulp). The Plus drinks have a bit of milk added to the fruit juice, and are usually combination flavors, such as strawberry banana, peach mango, and pineapple coconut. The Zero drinks lack any added sugars, or sweeteners. The Tea selections are, well, teas, like lemon and peach teas. And the Fruitz! ones are mixes for alcohol, with flavors like blood orange mix, and "fishing mix." (Alas, this last one doesn't contain any fish chunks--it's just a combo of apple, orange, and peach juices. Maybe it's designed to be mixed with booze and enjoyed while going fishing?)
The history of Santal and Parmalat on their official company websites were pretty terse and vague. About all I learned from them was the derivation of the Santal title. It's from the French term "Sante Alimentaire," which refers to a "healthy state is obtained through a healthy and correct diet." And, reportedly Santal was the first company to ever offer fruit drinks composed of 100% juice. (I tried to confirm this online, but wasn't able to. The actual first here isn't conclusively known. Some put out Minute Maid orange juice in the 1940's, and there are other possibilities. Perhaps Santal was the first 100% juice drink sold in Europe?) Other Parmalat brands include Zymil and Chef, which sell "functional products" such as probiotic yogurts.
Then I checked other online sources for the background of Parmalat and Santal. And then the limited nature of the company's history on their official websites became abundantly clear. It started out okay--in 1961 a 22-year-old college dropout named Calisto Tanzi started a small pasteurization plant. Over the next couple of decades Parmalat flourished, and began making foods and beverages, mostly dairy and fruit products. At its height, around the turn of the 21st century, Parmalat also owned a television channel, a travel group, and several pro football teams (or soccer, to we Americans, and I guess Australians). But, things got disastrous soon after. In 2003 the company's finances plummeted, incurring massive debt. Some websites claimed that this was the biggest company bankruptcy in European history. The law took avid interest, and Calisto Tanzi and some of his executives were charged and tried. There were many charges, including fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy, and criminal association. Tanzi was found guilty and was sentenced to over 20 years, in total. Although most of these convictions were overturned or lessened on appeal. He ended up doing 2 years in jail, and then more time on house arrest. His fellow executives were either acquitted, or settled out of court. Parmalat was then acquired by French giant Lactalis in 2011, so it's been a subsidiary since. So, all in all, this product's manufacturing company had a much more dark and interesting history than most of the ones that I report on.
Santal orange (arancia) juice: It had the usual color of orange juice, or orange. There wasn't much of an odor. It tasted like regular orange juice. I couldn't tell much of a difference between this and regular ones I've had over the years, like Tropicana. (I mean, I'm going on memory here--I didn't have several brands one after the other this time, but still.) It was arguably weaker than some, I guess, like Simply Orange. Anyway, long story short, it was okay, but not anything special. And because of this, this small, 250 mL bottle was probably a bit overpriced. But I'll try to sample any other Santal flavors I can find--maybe the Plus ones that also have milk are a little more interesting and tasty.
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