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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Juicing Aronia

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  • From: Anton Callaway <marillen@earthlink.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Juicing Aronia
  • Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:31:34 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

FWIW, Trader Joe's also sells 100% aronia juice which is not sweet, but is
good juice. It was a major reason I started planting aronia.

Zone 8

-----Original Message-----
>From: Don Yellman <don.yellman@webformation.com>
>Sent: Sep 21, 2007 2:53 PM
>To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [NAFEX] Juicing Aronia
>
>John:
>
>1. I have 3 mature Aronia bushes here (Viking) that I have never bothered
>to pick, but this season, when they were particularly full of berries, I
>decided to pick and process them all. Two full 5-gallon buckets of clusters
>snipped off with a small scissors. I waited until they were fully mature
>and very dark purple, with none of the berries showing any red, and a few
>perhaps past their prime and beginning to dry up a bit. These berries hang
>on until the bitter end, and birds and animals never touch them. I removed
>each berry individually from its cluster, then rinsed them vigorously
>several times, ending up with close to 5 gallons net berries. As it turned
>out, that was plenty.
>
>2. The only reason I can see to process these berries at all is for the
>purported health benefits of their anthocyanins, and their deep purple color
>which is capable of turning just about anything purple. I do not totally
>discount the health claims. I just don't know. But I certainly believe
>purple berries are a healthy food. There is no reason to process them for
>their flavor, since they have no fruit flavor that I can detect, although
>they are very highly astringent, which I take to mean acidic, and the ideal
>environment for the presence of anthocyanins. Aronia juice is almost always
>sold as a very minor (2% or less) component of a blend with other, sweeter
>juices that have some flavor. I think products like Trader Joe's Aronia
>blend contains about this amount of Aronia, in the form of "reconstituted"
>juice produce somewhere in central or eastern Europe. I make quite a bit of
>apple juice (cider) here, and had the vague idea of blending a little Aronia
>juice in each
> gallon, where the astringency might be welcome with the sweet juice, and
> the Aronia would improve the nutrition of the cider and turn it a nice
> purple color.
>
>3. Aronia is quite a dry berry, and I am afraid if you try to process these
>berries in your centrifugal juicer, you will end up with little to no juice.
> I first tried my steamer/juicer, but after nearly an hour of boiling found
>the berries still nearly intact, and began to mash them with a potato
>masher. That removed more of the juice, mixed with water from the steam,
>but not nearly all of it. I ended up finishing this batch with a small
>jelly cone, utilizing a wooden pestle, which removed all of the juice and
>left only seeds and dry skins behind. For the next two batches, I simply
>boiled hell of out of the berries for an hour, after adding a good amount
>of water, mashed them, and processed them all through the jelly cone. It
>was very tedious work, but I ended up with more than 3 full gallons of very
>dark Aronia juice, which currently resides in my freezer. I figure I have
>enough Aronia juice to blend with over 50 gallons of apple cider, should I
>choose to do so. It
> is, of course, not pure juice, since I added water to boil the berries, and
> the steamer/juicer also adds water as it operates, but if you tasted this
> stuff I think you would agree it is as pure as you would want it.
>
>4. The bottom line here is I don't think you will produce significant
>amounts of Aronia juice without boiling and softening the berries, then
>forcing them through a strainer like a jelly cone. If you have only a small
>amount of berries, you might be able to knock off this job in about 90
>minutes, but I will have to think about it before I process any Aronia
>berries next season. If I end up not using the 3 gallons I already have I
>probably won't bother.
>
>Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
>
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