Vegan Juice Brand Options & FAQ

Looking to learn about vegan juice brands? You’re in the right place.

We’re answering all of your questions in our vegan juice brand FAQ. We also cover some non-juice, fruity beverages such as crystal light, lemonade, Capri Sun and more.

Let’s begin!

Click on the table of contents below to find exactly what you’re looking for…

What to Know Before Reading

• Natural/Artificial Colors & Flavors: Often times, colors and flavors added to these types of products have unknown origins. In other words, determining whether they are 100% plant-based or 100% animal-based is nearly impossible. However, we don’t take these into account when determining whether something is vegan or not – nor do most practicing vegans today due to the lack of practicality. The good news is that most of these things are synthetic or plant-based nowadays.
• Cochineal: Cochineal is a specifically labeled food coloring in some juices that come from insects. It is NOT vegan because it’s a specifically labeled animal product, but luckily it’s not too common.
• Sugar: While some added sugar may be processed with bone char, you don’t really know unless it’s organic or beet-derived. That said, you can opt to not buy any products with added sugar, but we don’t think it’s necessary. See also: Is Sugar Vegan?
• Vitamin Fortifications*: We also don’t worry about vitamin fortifications added into juices. Certain vitamins like vitamin D can come from wool, but it can also come from plants like lichens.

In short, we look for blatantly labeled products derived from animals (including gelatin of course) when creating this vegan juice list and FAQ. This is the baseline for us, most vegan folks and follows the recommendations of the larger vegan organizations who focus on reducing/eliminating animal cruelty.

*If you’re concerned about this, simply skip any juices with vitamin fortification.

See Also: Best Juicer Blender Combo Options

Top Vegan Juice Brands We Like

Personally, when I drink juice – I like it to have as much real fruit and vegetables with as little added sugar. I also don’t like it to have that many extra calories. Getting too many calories from liquids can be troublesome, especially if you’re trying to drop a few pounds….

R.W. Knudsen Organic Beet Juice

What can I say? Beet juice is awesome. I love to use it before working out because it increases cardiovascular performance and muscle function.  It’s also not overly sweet.

Cheribundi Tart Cherry Juice Light

When I’m craving something sweet, this Cheribundi juice does the trick. It uses a bit of stevia to cut the cherry juice which makes it have less calories and less sugar.

Veggie Blends Sweet Greens Juice by V8

There are lots of vitamins/phytochemicals from the veggies in this one and it’s not too sweet. Plus, you can pretty much find it anywhere.

Now onto the FAQ!

Is V8 Vegan?

Yes! The original V8 Juice (ingredients below) is vegan. There aren’t really any suspicious ingredients listed, but a rumor had started that the natural flavoring was animal derived because the parent company (Campbells) had said that they didn’t offer any vegan products on Twitter.

They later clarified and said that V8 was indeed vegan. See the tweet below…

@thefoodbabe V8 100% Veg Juice & Tomato Soup are both vegetarian. No animal products are used. Sorry for any confusion.

— Campbell Cares (@CampbellCares) August 5, 2014

INGREDIENTS: VEGETABLE JUICE (WATER AND CONCENTRATED JUICES OF TOMATOES, CARROTS, CELERY, BEETS, PARSLEY, LETTUCE, WATERCRESS, SPINACH), SALT, VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID), BETA CAROTENE, NATURAL FLAVORING, CITRIC ACID.

Is Orange Juice Vegan?

The answer is yes. If the label of orange juice has one ingredient (juice from oranges) then you can be 100% sure that it’s vegan. But there are a few other details that you should know about…

Some orange juices are fortified with Omega-3’s in the form of fish oil. These are most definitely NOT vegan.

There are also orange juices that have vitamin fortification. Because it would be impossible to know the origins of these fortifications (namely the D vitamins which would be from wool), we don’t think it’s worth going out of your way to avoid for the sake of reducing animal cruelty.

As stated earlier, you can avoid any fortified orange juices if you’re concerned.

Is Tropicana Orange Juice Vegan?

We went through all of the products on Tropicana’s website, and most of them were vegan with two major exceptions.

• Omega-3 Heart Healthy Orange Juice: This orange juice contained gelatin and fish products. Two non-vegan ingredients.
• Orange Strawberry Banana: This juice by Tropicana used cochineal extract which is made from insects. Not vegan.

Watch out for these products in Tropicana juices.

Is Simply Orange Vegan?

Looking through all of the juices on their website, it seems as if they’re all vegan. Even their reddish juice-drinks don’t contain Cochineal and are flavored with fruit extracts.  If you’re concerned about calcium lactate in their fortified product, don’t worry. Calcium lactate does NOT come from milk.

Is Naked Juice Vegan?

The majority of juice drinks that Naked Juice makes are vegan, but unfortunately, all the products in the “Protein Zone” line contains whey. Because whey is milk-derived this means they are not vegan. The labels on their website at the time of writing also clearly specify which of their drinks contain milk and which ones don’t. However, all the beverages that we’ve seen outside of the “Protein Zone” line are vegan.

Is Capri Sun Vegan?

Yes! The ingredients in Capri Sun don’t contain any animal products which means that it’s vegan safe.

Here’s a list of the ingredients from the Wild Cherry flavor:

Is Lemonade Vegan?

There are many different lemonade brands out there, most of the time they will be vegan. They’re typically only water, a sweetener, and lemon flavor.

The only ingredient you may need to be aware of is honey in some specialty brands, but that’s going to be rare.

Here’s the ingredient statement for a popular brand, Minute Maid:

Ingredients: Contains pure filtered water, high fructose corn syrup, lemon juice from concentrate, lemon pulp, natural flavors, sugar.

Is Crystal Light Vegan?

Crystal Light has a bunch of different flavors, and all of the ones that we’ve seen are vegan. Like most drink powders, it’s mainly a compilation of a sweetener, colors, and flavors. I wouldn’t say that they’re the healthiest product, but could certainly be considered cruelty-free.

Is Bolthouse Farms Vegan?

The majority of Bolthouse Farms products and juices are vegan. However, they have a line of protein-shake products, all of which (to date) have dairy products. Bolthouse Farms is really good about labeling their products with allergens and animal-products so a quick glance at the bottle or ingredient/statements

Is Kool-Aid Vegan?

We looked at the ingredients in Kool-Aid and there are no animal products, making them suitable for a vegan lifestyle.

Here’s a sample of the Tropical Punch Kool-Aid ingredients for your reference…

INGREDIENTS: SUGAR, FRUCTOSE, CITRIC ACID, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, RED 40, BLUE 1, BHA (PRESERVES FRESHNESS)

Now that you’ve learned all about vegan juices, perhaps you want to learn how to live and thrive on a vegan diet? Check out our beginner vegan grocery list to learn what your staple foods should be.

Joey Bruno

Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!