Hungry Jack's Keri Apple Juice

Keri Apple Juice at Hungry Jack's is $4.45 and 597 kJ, with 33.6g of carbs and 31.8g of sugar. It is the cheapest of the standard cold drinks on the menu and the lowest sugar option among the juices and full sugar soft drinks.

Apple juice is naturally high in sugar, and the 31.8g here is largely fruit sugar rather than added. That distinction matters less than people assume: the body processes fructose from juice much the way it processes added sugar, since the fibre that slows absorption in whole fruit is gone.

What juice does bring is a cleaner flavour alongside food than a soft drink. There is no carbonation and no phosphoric acid, so it sits behind a meal rather than competing with it. That makes it a reasonable choice with breakfast or with something delicate.

At $4.45 it undercuts every other bottled or fountain drink on the menu except the frozen range, which starts at $2.00.

Keri is a New Zealand juice brand with a long history in Australia, and apple is its most common line here.

Who it suits: children, anyone at breakfast, and anyone avoiding both caffeine and carbonation. It is the quietest drink on the menu.

Compare against Mount Franklin Spring Water at $4.95 if you want nothing at all in the glass.