It’s almost cranberry season! I saw a package of fresh cranberries at the market and thought it was the “perfect juice experiment.”
The humble cranberry is a fall/winter staple. You would be crazy not to whip up a batch of cranberry sauce when the holidays hit, or else mutiny would surely ensue. It’s rumored that cranberries were first discovered by Native Americans who used the deep red fruit for medicinal purposes as well as a dye for clothing and blankets. The most famous medicinal property of cranberry juice is for the prevention of UTIs. Cranberries are high in proanthocyanidins, which is the active ingredient that kills the bad bacteria in the urinary tract. I can’t pronounce it for the life of me, but man, am I glad it exists. Other benefits of regularly consuming cranberries include tumor reduction and protection from cardiovascular disease. These tiny balls of berry power are also incredibly high in antioxidants with a 8,983 capacity compared to wild blueberries which clock in at 13,327; not bad cranberry, not bad.
Cranberries are crunchy and bitter which makes them almost impossible to eat raw — unless you juice them. The juice was extremely tart when I tasted it on its own. It definitely tasted like it was “good for you.” Know what I mean? I knew I couldn’t drink it on its own, so I decided to mix it with some good old apple and ginger. It made a delightfully sweet and tart wintertime juice that made me fall in love with raw cranberries. I threw some into my smoothie later on that day and it added a perfect punch of cranberry flavor.
For the juice I used about 1 cup of cranberries, 1 grapefruit, 4 apples and 1 knob of ginger.
