I came to this one late. For years mango was a smoothie fruit and oranges were a juice fruit, and it never crossed my mind to put the two together. Then a mate knocked up a jug of it one hot afternoon and that was that. I’ve been making it ever since, especially now the season turns and the first colds start doing the rounds. It’s thick, properly orange and sweet enough that you never miss the carton stuff with the added sugar.
Why these ingredients work
Oranges are the obvious one. A medium orange carries roughly 70mg of vitamin C, well past the 40mg daily guideline in the UK, and vitamin C is one of those nutrients the body can’t store, so it wants a steady top-up rather than one big hit a week. Mango earns its place twice over. It brings its own vitamin C, and it’s full of beta-carotene, the pigment the body turns into vitamin A, which keeps your skin and the lining of your gut intact. Those surfaces matter more than people think: they’re the barrier most germs have to cross before they get anywhere.
I’ll be straight with you, the big trials on vitamin C supplements and colds came back underwhelming, so this isn’t a magic shield in a glass. What the evidence does support is immune cells needing vitamin C to do their job, and getting it from food rather than pills. A glass of this delivers around 160mg from two ingredients you can find in any supermarket, which is the real reason I make it when the weather turns.
FAQ
Can I use frozen mango?
Yes, and it’s often better value outside mango season. Thaw it first and tip any juice that runs out into the blender or juicer along with the fruit. Frozen mango is picked and frozen at peak ripeness, so it can taste more reliable than a pale supermarket mango in January.
Do I need to add sugar?
No. A ripe mango and a sweet orange are sugary enough on their own, and together they taste properly indulgent with nothing added. If anything, a squeeze of lime cuts through the sweetness, but that’s optional.
Is mango orange juice high in sugar?
Honestly, yes. There’s about 40g of sugar in a tall glass, all of it natural and straight from the fruit, which is roughly double a standard glass of orange juice. I treat this as a treat rather than a thirst-quencher and I wouldn’t have it every day, and it’s worth drinking alongside food if you’re watching your blood sugar. The upside is that sugar arrives with real vitamin C and a lot of flavour, which is more than you can say for the smoothies at the coffee shop.
More immunity recipes: see the full Immunity collection.
Mango Orange Juice
Equipment
- 1 Juicer masticating or centrifugal
- 1 High-speed blender for the blender method
- 1 Nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve to strain the blender version
- 2 Airtight glass bottles for storing
- 1 Budget cold press juicer a great value alternative
- 1 Budget blender a great value alternative
Ingredients
Juice base
- 2 ripe mangoes peeled and stoned, about 400g of flesh; squeeze the stones over the bowl first, they hold more juice than you'd think
- 4 medium oranges juiced, about 350ml; a sweet variety like navel makes the biggest difference here
- 100 ml cold water only if using the blender method
Instructions
Juicer method
- Peel the mangoes and slice the flesh off the stone in big chunks. Squeeze the stones over the bowl, then pick out any stringy bits from the fruit.
- Halve the oranges and juice them into a jug.
- Feed the mango chunks through the juicer a few at a time. Mango is soft, so if it stalls, push it through with a spare orange segment rather than ramming the plunger.
- Stir the mango juice into the orange juice, taste, and pour into two glasses over ice. It settles as it sits, so give it a stir before each sip and drink it the same day.
Blender method
- Prep the fruit the same way: mango flesh in chunks, oranges juiced.
- Tip the mango, orange juice and cold water into a high-speed blender and blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until completely smooth.
- Pour through a nut milk bag or a fine-mesh sieve and squeeze out as much juice as you can.
- Taste, thin with a splash more water if you need to, and serve over ice.