At first I thought these pickles overly salty, but that impression abated quickly. I devoured the entire contents over about 8 days and then called Madges to ask if I could drink the juice! These are the very best dill pickles I have ever had in my life and you can tell they are active! The juice is definitely helpful to the gut. They were out of stock the next time I purchased, so now Im haunting the website to pounce on them when they are resupplied.