When walking around the streets of dusty and hot Bangkok city, you will get really thirsty. You could stop for a drink of a fresh young coconut or you could just as easily stop for some freshly squeezed local mandarin orange drink.
You will see lots of these stalls with piles of green mandarin oranges on their carts. These oranges aren’t for sale in the sense that they aren’t for eating. The cart vendors will usually be found squeezing the mandarin oranges with a special contraption and then bottling the juice into plastic bottles, then chilling them in boxes of shaven ice.
The orange juice is sweet-sour with a very tangy zing on the tongue. However, I have found that the quality varies from stall to stall. At some stalls, the juice is so sweet as to make your back teeth hurt. At others, it is sourish. So, I have arrived at the conclusion that at some stalls, sugar water or syrup may have been added to make the drink more palatable or maybe to cater to the taste of the local populace which prefers sweet food.
The bottles aren’t very big and I can drain it all at one go! 
It does quench your thirst on a hot day but I don’t drink too much of it due to the sometimes artificial tasting sweetness. A bottle of fresh mandarin orange juice can cost anywhere between THB15-20 depending on where you are. I thought I was being fleeced when the lady wanted THB20 but I saw that locals were paying the same price too. So I guess it was a case of my buying from a more expensive stall. This was in the Central World area so it is only to be expected!
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
That orange colour looks so fluorescent, and yet I’m sure it’s all real stuff-don’t think they’d add colouring to it!
Sounds lovely, I’m so into sour foods now-you know why-hah!
Monstro: No colouring but maybe sugar. And sour food craving is normal no?
All Thai street stalls add sugar (not artificial sweetners!) and salt to orange juice. In a hot climate, you lose sugar and salt when you sweat so, being smart about this, that’s why Thais add it. Even in Western countries, sugar is added to orange juice – they just don’t tell you!