Putting the Squeeze On
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 2,790 EXP, which places it 3rd of the 6 Lv 5 Culinarian tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Jack of All Plates, returns 6,280 EXP for the same allowance, 125% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 1,170 EXP to 6,280 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 437%, so the wrong pick leaves 5,110 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 10 Culinarian tradecraft leve returns 10,480 EXP per allowance, 67% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 1 rung behind tops out at 1,420 EXP.
At Lv 5 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 4,554 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 28,481 EXP, which puts this leve 39% below its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 140 gil per allowance is 4th of 6 on the same rung against 3rd on EXP, with the best there paying 224 gil.
Orange Juice ×3 is a Lv 6 Culinarian recipe, a single step, costing 3 units of raw material and 2 crystals.
Handing that in returns 930 EXP and 47 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.