How to Make Tart Cherry Juice
To reap the benefits of tart cherry juice, you’ll need to make it at home. This step-by-step guide on how to make tart cherry juice will walk you through all the necessary ingredients and steps to create a healthy drink that can help reduce inflammation, pain, and soreness in your muscles, as well as aid in weight loss and improved digestion. You’ll never buy bottled juice again!
What are tart cherries?
Tart cherries are ripe, dried cherries that have a tangy flavor. They’re extremely high in antioxidants, making them an anti-inflammatory food that can help reduce pain and inflammation. Some people say tart cherry juice can also boost your immune system and fight off colds. They’re called tart because they contain much more sugar than regular cherries (they actually taste more like cranberries). In order to get rid of all that sugar, you need to process tart cherries into a puree or juice them before eating or cooking with them. Learn how to make your own Tart Cherry Juice at home.
Choose the right type of tart cherries
Tart cherries come in two main varieties: Montmorency tart cherries and Balaton tart cherries. Both are equally healthy, but their flavor profiles differ. Montmorency tart cherries have a stronger, more wine-like taste, while Balaton tart cherries have a mellower flavor and are most often used in juice form. Tart cherry juice can be found at natural foods stores, so it's easy to pick up a few bottles if you don't want to go through all of the steps of making your own.
You’ll need at least 12 ounces of tart cherries per liter of juice. Cut them in half and remove any stems before you wash them thoroughly. Most people use a blender or juicer to make their tart cherry juice, but if you want more pulp with your beverage, a coffee grinder will work well for chopping up your fruit. Always add lemon juice when blending or grinding your cherries; it helps keep their bright red color even after they’ve been processed. This small step will also help preserve vitamins and antioxidants from being broken down into other products during processing. Be sure not to add more than a tablespoon of lemon juice per 12 ounces of cherries—you don’t want too much acidity in your final product!
Put all ingredients in a blender (except ice)
6 ounces tart cherry juice, 2.5 ounces gin, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 2/3 cup ice cubes. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass with fresh mint leaves and enjoy! Alternatively you can add all ingredients into a shaker and shake for about 10 seconds. Strain through a fine strainer into a martini glass and garnish with mint leaves on top. Cheers!
Blend it all together
When you want a smoothie with some texture, experiment with frozen fruit. If it’s out of season and fresh fruit is expensive, consider using frozen. But watch your portions—one cup of chopped frozen raspberries can have more than 100 calories and 15 grams of sugar. A better option? Go with fresh or dried fruit, which packs just 80 calories and 16 grams of sugar per cup. When making a smoothie that needs to be thick enough to grab onto a spoon (think smoothies or slushies), add something frozen like an ice cube or a handful of frozen cherries for about 100 calories per cup (depending on your ingredients). If you’re feeling adventurous, freeze sliced strawberries so you have crunchy bits in your smoothie.
Add Ice
Frozen cherries are easier to blend, and they help make your juice colder. Add a handful of frozen cherries—or however many it takes for you to get your blender going—when you add water. Cherries are very bitter on their own, so be sure to keep that in mind when selecting your favorite sweetener (honey, agave nectar) or whether you want a little dash of almond milk added in at all! If tart cherry juice isn’t already part of your daily routine, now is a great time to start!
Serve it cold, but not frozen!
Most fruits are best when served at room temperature, but tart cherries have a higher pectin content. Pectin is responsible for thickening and gelling, so it’s important that your cherry juice is consumed while still cold (but not frozen). If you do freeze tart cherry juice, be sure to let it thaw completely before serving and don’t refreeze it. You can also check out some of our recipes for making fruity popsicles and smoothies with tart cherry juice!
Tart Cherry Juice Benefits
A lot of people have recently been touting the benefits of tart cherry juice, especially for reducing inflammation and preventing muscle soreness. While it’s great to know the ways tart cherry juice can make you feel better, knowing how to make it yourself is even better! Tart cherry juice is easy to make in your own kitchen and won’t cost you much more than the fruit itself. With this recipe, you’ll never have to buy tart cherry juice from the store again, and you’ll always have it on hand when you need it most!
Tart Cherries
While tart cherry juice benefits are associated with pain relief, other studies have shown that tart cherries can help fight cancer. Tart cherries contain compounds called anthocyanins, which have been proven to prevent tumor growth in rats and may even hinder cancer cell growth in humans. Because of their association with helping heal joint pain and inflammation, as well as its antioxidant properties, tart cherry juice is becoming a go-to supplement for people looking to avoid disease and maintain good health.
People who have trouble sleeping or suffer from muscle pain might find relief in tart cherry juice. Tart cherries contain melatonin, which helps you fall asleep and stay asleep. Tart cherry juice is also a great source of magnesium and potassium, both of which aid in muscle relaxation. Finally, tart cherry juice helps relieve inflammation by reducing oxidative stress on your body.
Improving sleep quality
Tart cherry juice may help promote better sleep quality, according to a study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food. Sleep quality improves when you improve blood flow and circulation to your brain, says Dr. Scott Olson, PhD, certified clinical nutritionist and co-owner of Natural Vitality Wellness Center in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Drinking tart cherry juice can help relax your arteries and improve blood flow and circulation—helping you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. In a separate study from Finland, researchers gave people tart cherry extract for 12 weeks and found that it reduced signs of insomnia like sleep latency (the time it takes to get to sleep) as well as daytime fatigue.
Improving athletic performance
The high levels of anthocyanins, quercetin and kaempferol in tart cherry juice may help reduce pain, muscle soreness and inflammation from exercise. Studies show that taking tart cherry juice at least one hour before strenuous activity can minimize inflammation after an injury or intense workout. This can help protect your muscles from trauma so you feel less pain, cramping and stiffness. The same anti-inflammatory compounds in tart cherries have also been shown to alleviate pain due to osteoarthritis. Cherry juice may also reduce joint swelling and stiffness by promoting healthy blood flow.
Healing arthritis pain
Early research suggests that drinking tart cherry juice daily may reduce pain and stiffness in people with rheumatoid arthritis. It is also effective in reducing pain associated with osteoarthritis. In these studies, people took 2 to 8 ounces of juice a day for two weeks to six months. Some experts believe that consuming a glass daily can provide long-term relief from inflammation and swelling, which occurs when your body’s immune system attacks normal tissue as if it were a foreign invader.
Reducing inflammation
According to a study published in Nutrition Journal, tart cherry juice can help reduce inflammation associated with arthritis. As many as 45% of adults over age 65 have osteoarthritis, and those people often experience joint stiffness and pain that can limit mobility and interfere with their daily activities. Cherries are rich in anthocyanins, which are plant pigments that help relieve inflammation. Drinking tart cherry juice might not cure your arthritis or eliminate joint pain completely, but it can help reduce inflammation and make it easier to manage—and ease pain while you’re at it. Just be sure to check with your doctor before trying new supplements or changing your diet drastically; adding certain foods or nutrients into your diet too quickly could cause complications like nausea or diarrhea.
Anti-aging benefits
As you age, your body produces less collagen, a protein that keeps skin smooth and supple. The University of Michigan's Kellogg Eye Center conducted a study in which women drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice twice daily for 12 weeks. By week eight, women's eyes were 10 percent smoother than those who did not drink the juice; by week 12, participants' eye skin looked an average of one year younger. Tart cherries have also been shown to prevent cataracts (the clouding of an eye's lens), as well as degenerative diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. They are also thought to lower blood pressure and heart rate.
Unsalted food is like garbage
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