The Name Brand Behind Costco's Kirkland Signature Cranberry Juice

Shoppers who wonder how Costco keeps Kirkland Signature prices so cheap may wonder who's filling the bottles, too. Some of the name brands hiding behind Costco's popular Kirkland products take nothing less than real detective work to uncover, but for some reason, its cranberry juice manufacturer is an open secret. Ocean Spray's name is printed loud and proud right on the jug. The full product title is Kirkland Signature Ocean Spray Cranberry Premium 100% Juice. Ocean Spray even lists the bottle on its own website and calls it an "exclusive."

That name carries real weight in the juice aisle, since Ocean Spray products turn up in about half of American homes (via NewsNation). Here's a lesser-known part of the untold truth of Ocean Spray: It isn't a typical corporation, but a cooperative owned by about 700 farming families, and the growers collect the profits. Three cranberry farmers set it up back in 1930, and it now proudly makes Costco's Kirkland Signature cranberry juice. What actually matters, though, is what's in the jug, how its sugar stacks up against Ocean Spray's sweetened cocktail, and what shoppers think of the taste.

Each $9.99 pack of Kirkland Signature cranberry juice holds two 96-ounce bottles, and each pours 12 glasses at 8 ounces apiece. But pure cranberry it is not. The ingredient list leads with cranberry juice, then brings in apple and grape juice, all from concentrate, plus natural flavor and vitamin C. Ocean Spray says the extra fruit is there to balance the berry's sour bite with some sweetness. One glass runs 100 calories with 24 grams of sugar, none of it added, and supplies enough vitamin C for a whole day.

The real difference between this bottle and Ocean Spray's classic cranberry juice cocktail is where the sugar comes from. Pour an 8-ounce glass of each, and the totals land nearly even, at about 25 grams for the cocktail and 24 for the Kirkland juice. But about 23 of the cocktail's grams are added sugar, while the Kirkland juice gets all of its sweetness from the fruit. Switching won't cut the amount of sugar in your glass, just which kind it is.

Reviewers on Ocean Spray's site mostly like what they're pouring. One longtime Ocean Spray buyer grabbed the Kirkland jug on a whim and wrote in November 2023, "The taste is so much better than the regular." That same shopper recommended the Kirkland juice for a Cape Cod, the classic vodka, cranberry, and lime cocktail. Another reviewer who'd been buying the Costco juice for a decade, however, blamed a recipe change for ruining it, writing, "The taste is now sickly sweet." They also miss the pear juice that used to be part of the blend.