Cranberry juice has a lot of health benefits. Many people though, try to force cranberry juice down their mouth because it tastes awful! How to make cranberry juice taste better?
Fresh cranberry or 100% pure cranberry juice is hardly pleasant in taste. Tannins, an antioxidant, are responsible for giving cranberry an awful taste.
You can eat cranberry fresh, as a juice, or as dried jam.
Benefits Of Cranberry Juice
Cranberries are one of the most popular foods in the US many families consume. Cranberry contains essential vitamins and minerals which are beneficial to your health and overall well-being.
Cranberries are white and turn red when ripe. They are used as medicine, food, and in certain instances as dyes.
How to Make Cranberry Juice Taste Better
Cranberries are notorious for being sour. Unlike apple or orange juice, cranberry juice needs a sweetener to make it an enjoyable and tastier juice. How to make cranberry juice taste better?
There are two ways to make cranberry juice taste better: with sugar and without sugar. Cranberry juice tastes better when sweetened.
1. Sweetening Cranberry Juice with Sugar
Adding sugar is the first thing that comes to mind when asked, how to make cranberry juice taste better. After all, sugar is meant to make anything sweet.
You can add 5 grams of sugar per 100 ml of cranberry juice. You could also add less or more sugar depending on your taste. Cranberry juice needs to be heated to make sure the sugar will dissolve. For homemade cranberry juice, you can also add sugar while cooking cranberries.
2. Sweetening Cranberry Juice without Sugar
Adding sugar is the easiest way to sweeten cranberry juice. If you want to avoid sugar, you can sweeten your cranberry juice by adding any of these. They will also make your Cranberry juice taste better.
- Honey
Adding honey is the best way to sweeten your cranberry juice. Honey is the best alternative to sugar. Honey not only makes your cranberry juice sweet, it also adds extra nutrients to your juice.
You only need a small amount of honey to add to your juice. Honey is added to cool Cranberry juice.
- Sweeteners
Sweeteners are a common sugar replacement, especially in coffee or tea. Sweeteners can also be used in Cranberry juice. Just add a little amount of sweetener or your juice may taste bitter. Add one sachet of sweetener at a time, taste your juice, and decide whether your juice needs more sweetener.
- Another Fruit Juice
The Cranberry Juice you buy in the grocery store is typically mixed with another fruit juice that has a less sharp taste. You can duplicate this process at home.
You can mix your Cranberry juice with orange juice, apple juice, pear juice, grape juice, pineapple juice, or pomegranate juice.
All these juices are good choices to mix with your Cranberry juice to give it a unique flavor and better taste, but the dominant taste will still be that of the cranberry. The more of the other juices you add, the sweeter your Cranberry juice will get.
You can also opt for several other fruit juices at a time to your Cranberry juice to create a cocktail. Just be cautious of the resulting color of your cocktail because, as you may know, mixing different colors creates a new color and that is true with juices, too.
- Lime or Lemon Juice
Lime or lemon juice takes the tartness off the taste of Cranberry juice and at the same time enhances its taste.
- 5Water or Soda Water
You can dilute your Cranberry juice with water or soda water. Water or soda water will not alter the taste of the juice but it will take away some of its tartness. The Cranberry juice will still taste sharp, but it will now become tolerable.
As a variation, you can also dilute your cranberry juice in coconut water or tonic water.
Adding some ice to your now diluted Cranberry juice, will help with the dilution and make your drink more refreshing.
- Celery or Cucumber
Celery or cucumber are commonly used in alcoholic drinks because they bring some sweetness and help lessen the strong taste of the drink.
Diluting your Cranberry juice and adding celery or cucumber will mellow your drink more.
- Salt
This may sound weird but salt can help curb the bitter taste of your Cranberry juice and bring out some of its natural sweetness. Adding a small pinch of salt to a glass of Cranberry juice is enough because too much salt can instantly become overpowering.
Adding salt will not make your Cranberry juice taste as sweet as with honey or sugar, but it will not taste as tart and will be more palpable.
- Create a Smoothie
If you cannot tolerate its taste even when adding some of the “sweeteners” mentioned above, you may like to create a smoothie.
Mix some of your favorite fruits and a bit of yogurt or milk with your Cranberry juice. Bananas, raspberries, and pineapple mixed with Cranberry juice and made into a smoothie is a delectable treat. You will not even notice there is Cranberry juice in your smoothie.
Conclusion
Cranberry juice has various health benefits. The only downside of Cranberry juice is its awful taste.
Some people get turned off with its taste and pass taking it because they cannot tolerate its taste. There are, however, many ways on how to make cranberry juice taste better.
You can add sugar to make Cranberry juice taste sweeter and more tolerable. You can also add other ingredients to the juice to make it sweeter if you want to avoid sugar.
Are you into Cranberry juice? Have you tried Cranberry juice with any of the sweeteners mentioned above? Are there other ingredients you have added to your Cranberry juice to make it taste better? Share with us some of your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section.
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