Tart Cherry Juice

Tart cherry juice is made from sour cherries and has a distinctively sharp, fruity taste quite different from sweet cherry juice. Its deep ruby colour and intense flavour make it popular both as a straight drink and as an ingredient in smoothies and cocktails.

The juice is available in concentrate form, which can be diluted to taste, or as ready-to-drink bottles. Its tartness means it is often blended with other juices or lightly sweetened. It has become a popular post-exercise drink in Australia, widely stocked in health food shops and supermarkets.

Tart cherry juice also works well in cooking — it can be reduced into a glaze for roasted meats or used as a base for salad dressings and dessert sauces where a fruity acidity is desired.

Farmed
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Tart cherries are harvested at peak ripeness and washed before being mechanically pressed to extract their juice. The juice is typically filtered to remove pulp and sediment, then pasteurised for shelf stability. For concentrate, the juice undergoes further processing to remove water, resulting in a thick, intensely flavoured syrup that is reconstituted before drinking.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 59kcal
Protein 0.3g
Carbs 13.7g
Fat 0.5g
Fibre 0g Sugar 12.2g
Mass Distribution

1 cup is about 269 g — roughly 160 kcal of this.

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon ≈1.35kg
Freshwater ≈327.35L
Land ≈1.53

≈ Estimated — worked out from a category-typical value further up its supply chain. Where this comes from →

Where it comes from

In the kitchen

Used as

tart functional juice

Classic dishes
  • Cherry juice cocktail
  • Cherry smoothie
  • Cherry vinaigrette

Keeping one at home? Track yours in your cubud →

Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

USDA

How it was calculated

SR Legacy

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

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