Aronia Berry-A Rising Star?
The other day I was minding my own business at the local Trader Joes when I spied a new juice bottle in their juice department. There it was...as if laughing at me...100% Aronia Berry Juice (from concentrate). Oh noooooo, it cannot be! Let me explain...
Some time ago, in one of my orders from Raintree Nursery, I got an Aronia berry bush. I think I was taken in by this description from the catalog:
"This shrub is so beautiful, easy to grow and so productive that it will become a staple in American backyards, as it has in Eastern Europe. In Europe and recently in the U.S. it is being widely used in delicious juices, soft drinks, jams and wine. It's not an "aronia's conclusion" that this, and the seabuckthorn, are the most productive fruiting bushes in captivity. The fruit is tart eaten fresh even when fully ripe. It is very high in Vitamin C. It is native to the U.S., but the best varieties were bred in Europe."
Well...it did manage to grow nicely in my 5 gallon pot, and it did fruit, and boy, those fruits tasted...well... totally inedible to me! It was quickly placed on my "gotta trade that one away" list.
But now, I guess it has hit the big time, and what was I thinking? Come back to me Aronia, I still love you, just a temporary mental lapse...
Here is what it says on the back of the aronia juice bottle:
"Yup, you read that correctly. Aronia Berry Juice. (that's ah-roh-knee-ah) And just what is an aronia berry? We're glad you asked. Aronia berries are dark pigmented berries that extremely hight in antioxidents. Higher than blueberries, higher than cranberries, higher, even, than pomegranites. This juice is a terrific mixer-with everything from sparkling water to lemonade to vodka. Give it a try-just for the health of it."
I do love this competition of anti-oxidents thing that is creeping into American capitalism. Give me the highest! I want number one! I don't want that loser second place fruit! Can I get a 24 hour IV with antioxidents...which should...I guess help to live...uh...forever?
At any rate, 100 % aronia juice is perhaps best compared in taste to 100% cranberry juice. If you have never tried unsweetened 100% cranberry juice...then...well...it is different shall we say.
How to describe the sensation? Blunt? Puckering? Astringent? Adult? I kind of feel a bit heroic after a swig of it, like downing a shot of some powerfully destructive adult vice. There, I took a shot! See?! I am manly. I am strong. (Nevermind, of course, that cranberry juice is a folk remedy for women's urinary tract infections.)
Suffice to say, that after a swig of 100% Aronia Berry Juice, you won't be smiling. Wipe that silly smile off your face! Ouch, that was...uh...good? Manly. Strong.
As I see it, 100% pomegranite juice used to be sort of like this, but it seems to have recently changed. The popular and curvaciously bottled "Pom" clearly uses a new, sweeter cultivar of pomegranite. It is still quite possible to smile after taking a swig of Pom. Don't worry guys, even if you do smile, you are still manly and strong. Now will someone please tell all the male models who appear in womens' catalogs about this? Why are they always glaring and looking kind of angry? Is this the natural male state? I suspect they have been drinking a lot of Aronia juice.
The following thread was started by Paul on October 03, 2005 at 9:57 pm PST
We don't have anything exotic like that!
We put up with orange ordinaire or apple (perhaps liver damaging drinks containing 'Guarana' , 'Taurine' or similar unknows could be considered 'manly'?).
We do have Feijoa juice though - it's quite thick, reasonably sweet and actually quite palatable, but I suspect not masculine enough - I refuse to drink it on the grounds that it might also be good for female urinary infections!
The above followup was added by Nigel(NZ) on October 04, 2005 at 3:37 pm PST.
Liver damaging Taurine? Hmmm....sounds awfully tempting.
Actually Feijoa juice sounds like a winner to me. Is it in bottles at the average grocery store? I'll bet that Feijoa juice is probably good for some sort of itch down there.
The above followup was added by Paul on October 04, 2005 at 7:04 pm PST.
I've read it 3 times already and enjoyed it more each time. Its so timely because there are people where I work that are pushing mangosteen juice that is supposed to have the most antioxidents and cure almost any illness imaginable. I forwarded them your article.
The above followup was added by don on October 04, 2005 at 7:17 pm PST.
Paul,
I never quite seem to have the energy or will to attempt matching the wit of your posts. Therefore, what follows will be cold, clinical analysis. (But I'm not a completely humorless fellow in my personal life, honest!)
I've noticed aronia juice for sale at the Costco chain of warehouse stores for several years now. I've tried it, and the product is enjoyable -- very sweet, with an indistinct sort of blended berry taste.
Alas, the sweetness (as you allude to) comes not from the fruit, but rather from copious quantities of high-fructose corn sweetener ... a substance that I am trying to avoid for health reasons. At least from my perspective, any salutary antioxidant effects would be more than conterbalanced by all that added sweetener.
Is it a plant worth growing? Like the seaberry/seabuckthorn, I suspect the answer is "yes" only if the potential grower:
A. Owns a substantial property; and
B. Lives in a cold climate region.
If you've got little space, you'd be better off with blueberries, raspberries, etc.
And if you live in a warmer region, in addition to the blueberries and raspberries, you've got a whole range of other small-fruited (or large-fruited, for that matter) plants to choose from.
I've never eaten raw aronia fruit, but I'm pretty certain that a good feijoa would be about 1,000 times better tasting. (And while feijoa juice may be commonly available at the average Wellington grocery store, I think it will be a while longer before you will find it at the average Corte Madera supermarket. Too bad, because I bet it tastes really good!)
Mind you, there are some folks who really, really like tart-tasting fruit. One hobbyist active in local rare-fruit circles (Idell W.) grows seaberry/seabuckthorn, and she raves about how wonderful the berries are -- so sprightly and refreshing! She would most likely love fresh aronia berries as well. (I hope, Paul, that you won't allow your masculinity to be challenged by this ... think of her as our own Margaret Thatcher, feminine but made of steel!)
Finally, I've also heard that aronia berries are strongly attractive to wildlife. So a few stands of the plants might do wonders in keeping the birds, etc., away from crops that you really care about. Again, this strategy would only work for those who own substantial properties.
The above followup was added by Ashok on October 04, 2005 at 11:44 pm PST.
Paul,
Have a gander at this if you're interested
http://www.phoenixorganics.co.nz/what/honeysweeteneddrinks/juices/
Ashok - certainly you can buy Feijoa in Wellington, but as a parochial Aucklander I believe the copious amounts downed by my southern (male) cousins explains why Wellington remains a village with 1/5 the population of Auckland!
The above followup was added by Nigel(NZ) on October 05, 2005 at 1:42 am PST.
Nigel,
An interesting collection of juices. It seems like feijoa is further along in acceptence there in NZ than here in the US.
Don,
I am glad you enjoyed the initial entry. I am frequently amused by the way things are pushed or promoted here in the United States. Advertising is usually all about pushing certain buttons found in the deep recesses of the individual. When you begin to examine the assumptions found in advertising, you find yourself wondering if the whole thing is a house of cards. You shake your head, and return to the garden, where things seem a tad bit more honest.
Ashok,
I guess Aronia has been out there longer than I thought. I have now tried mixing Aronia juice with lemonade and apple juice and it seems to be much more palatable this way. Though in truth, I don't mind it too much straight up. Sometimes, I'm just in the mood to grimace a bit.
My sense of Aronia is that it is a very strong plant. In fact, it might give pyracantha a run for the money, but be careful, you may find that you prefer eating the pyracantha berries! (yuch). As far as the fruit being too tart, that was not actually my major objection...I just found that they tasted like dirt and had virtually no "meat" on them, but other than that...
Perhaps I need to put the plant in the ground where the fruit can develop a more full bodied Aronia taste...hmm...
My sense is that Aronia is very much like the cranberry in that the fruits, when eaten raw, are close to inedible. Of course, here in the US, we know that the "inedible raw" cranberry is an extremely popular fruit. Heck, the entire state of Massachusetts would probably slide into the ocean if we stopped consuming cranberries (okay, I exaggerate a bit). Some time ago it was discovered that cranberries can be juiced, and this juice sweetened or mixed with others, to produce a marvelously delicious juice.
All of which underscores a very fundamental point: some fruits can be enjoyed fresh off the tree, while others need considerable processing before we can enjoy them. In general, in my little garden, I tend to prefer to grow the "fresh off the tree" fruits.
But...I have recently begun to appreciate, grudgingly, the quinces that I am growing. Some time ago, when I visited Jerry up there in Oregon, he tried to sell me a quince tree. I asked him if the fruit could be eaten fresh, to which he said no, you need to cook it. I immediately responded that no, I don't want that. I wanted fruits I could eat straight off the tree. He shook his head, thinking me a fool. You have no idea he said. You just pick the quince, core out the middle, fill it with honey and bake it in the oven for a little bit. It's delicious he said. Is that so hard? Forget it, I said.
Well, I didn't get that quince, but a few years later, I saw mention of a quince that, in thoery, you could eat raw, without cooking, the so-called Aromatnaya cultivar. So I bought it, planted it, and it has now given a few fruits.
Hmmm...how do I eat this raw? It is rock hard. Smells nice. Oh...I see...you are supposed to leave it out until it gets soft. Okay. Well, that one went soft...and is...uh...rotten. Hmmm...
Oh...alright...I will core one out, fill it with honey and bake it. Hmmmm...no honey in the cupboard. Okay, how about a little brown sugar? That will do. Put it in the oven now, on a pie tin, for about half an hour. Take it out. Slice it up. Well....I'll be darned, that is quite good! (Of course, here...let's skip the quince, put a little brown sugar on a pie tin, put it in the oven. Hey that is pretty darned good too! Okay, let's skip the quince and the brown sugar, just put a pie tin in the oven...no, that's no good...)
On this issue of gender and tastes, you might think that I am pretty far afield on this, but just to show you that I can occasionally stumble upon the current zeitgeist, I have to tell you about a story that was in the paper just last night. It seems that the alcohol (distilled spirits) industry in the US has found that in order to get teenage girls to consume alcohol, they need to produce sweeter drinks. In particular, beer is too bitter for girls (guys, presumably, like the punishment).
And so, you now have a battle between groups that want to discourage teenage drinking, and the ever more powerful "sweet" alcohol drink industry. Apparently, these "sweet" drinks are actually beer with ALL the beer taste taken out, with some hard alcohol thrown in, then mixed with lemonade or the like. Under California law, because these drinks contain hard alcohol, they cannot be sold in the tens of thousands of establishments that have only beer and wine licenses (and the drinks are also subject to the higher hard alcohol taxes).
A bill was recently slipped in at the last minute here in California to allow these drinks to, nevertheless, be sold as beer or wine at all those establishments and merely pay beer taxes. It is now sitting on the Governator's desk, and he is applying as much of his Hollywood acumen as he can muster to resolve this issue. We shall see what he does. On the one hand, you have morality, family values, motherhood and public safety. On the other hand, you have the free market, monied interests, and libertarian principles.
The above followup was added by Paul on October 05, 2005 at 10:57 am PST.
I have a superbly fruitful Tropical Apricot.
Chocka full of antioxidents, vit C etc.
It's also almost inedible with the mouth puckering appeal of an under-ripe persimmon.
I have taken a jar full of these fruit and am soaking them in home distilled 50% alcohol (Yes, Virginia, you can legal distill alcohol in NZ). The aim is to create a fruit brandy that has all the good things to balance out the bad (?). I'll probably have to add sugar anyway, so I'm still at a net loss to the dark side.
The above followup was added by Nigel(NZ) on October 05, 2005 at 2:05 pm PST.
Hello: I was wondering if anyone knows where to purchase the best source of Aronia seeds or seedlings? (Re: Non-GMO,etc.) Thank you for your help.
The above followup was added by MAC on October 19, 2005 at 8:44 am PST.
For seed, try Schumacher Seeds or Sheffield Seed Co. Note the dormancy period for the seeds posted on the web sites - otherwise they may not germinate for you. If you're looking for a plant, try Forestfarm (on the west coast) or Lazy S Farm in the East - both good folks to deal with. Does size matter? Aronia melanocarpa 'Viking' stays manageable (under 5') and is a heavy fruiter- other cultivars (of melanocarpa -black, and arbutifolia - red) can top 7-8'
The above followup was added by JB on October 24, 2005 at 7:47 pm PST.