Fruit pulp vs. purée vs. concentrate: what you are actually buying

If you buy processed fruit for a business or for home, you will run into three words used as if they meant the same thing. They do not, and the difference shows up in the glass and on the invoice.

Pulp

The edible part of the fruit, separated from skin and seeds, then frozen. No water is removed and nothing is added. It is the closest thing to whole fruit that you can keep for months.

• The real fruit's flavour and acidity, with natural batch-to-batch variation.
• You dilute it to suit the use: juice, smoothie, dessert or sauce.
• Our pulp is 100% fruit: no added sugar, no preservatives, no colourings.

Purée

Also made from the fruit flesh, but usually more refined: sieved for a smoother, more uniform texture. Many pastry purées contain added sugar to stabilise flavour. Read the ingredient list: if sugar is on it, part of what you pay for by weight is sugar.

Concentrate

Juice with much of its water evaporated to cut weight and shipping cost. You reconstitute it with water to use it. The heat changes the flavour, and nectars made from concentrate usually have added sugar and water.

Which one to use

• Natural juices and smoothies where the flavour is the product: pulp.
• Precision pastry where the texture must be identical every time: purée.
• High-volume drinks where price per litre matters more than flavour: concentrate.

For a juice bar or a Latin restaurant, pulp is usually the best balance of flavour and cost, because you control the dilution and the sweetness yourself.