Alcoholic apple juice sold from snack bar

Pictured from left to right: a normal bottle of Apple  & Eve apple juice, a slightly fermented bottle and a heavily fermented bottle.

Credit: Charlie Moore

Pictured from left to right: a normal bottle of Apple & Eve apple juice, a slightly fermented bottle and a heavily fermented bottle.

Charlie Moore

Senior Kyle Camphausen purchased two bottles of Apple & Eve apple juice from the WHS snack bar on Thursday, Dec. 14. Settling down with his table of friends, he opened one and took a sip. Instead of sweet and smooth apple juice, Camphausen tasted a sour, carbonated flavor; only then he realized the juice was fermented and contained alcohol.

Camphausen and his slew of friends erupted into laughter as they informed Assistant Principal Jim Nocito about the oddly opaque-colored juice. Nocito brought it back and forth between Camphausen’s table and his fellow administrators, Assistant Principal Ethan Dolleman and Principal Allyson Mizoguchi. He continued to smell it.

Along with the sour taste and opaque color, Camphausen also noticed the juice was evidently carbonated.

“[The juice] tasted really weird, and then I looked at it and it was all bubbly and fizzy,” Camphausen said. “There was some gunk on the bottom of the bottle.”

Dolleman went and grabbed a breathalyzer to test if the juice actually contained alcohol. After dipping the apparatus into the bottle, it displayed a message confirming his suspicions: the breathalyzer read ‘positive.’

Nocito, still clutching the suspect bottle of juice, took Camphausen into the back of the snack bar to see exactly where he’d gotten it. Nocito also alerted Cheryl Judd, the head of food services at Wayland High School.

Judd proceeded to remove all of the Apple & Eve products from the shelves of the snack bar.

Clearly, the juice sold to Camphausen was fermented. It had spoiled and gone bad. Despite the juice being bottled and sealed with the due date ‘Aug. 14, 2018,’ Judd accredits a hole in the packaging as the culprit.

“The bottle was sealed; however, there must have been a pinhole in the bottle where air got into it,” Judd said. “All of the Apple & Eve products have been looked at, and we will follow up with the vendor. We did not discover any other problems.”

Judd is waiting for direct contact with the vendor to clarify exactly how this happened. Until then, the apple juice and other products coming from Apple & Eve will stay off the shelves of the WHS snack bar.