Monday, August 1, 2011

Drinks Around the World: Pomegranate Juice (Morocco, Turkey)

The translucent seeds of the pomegranate glitter like rubies in the afternoon Moroccan sun. And nothing could refresh the body like pomegranate juice escaping after a few hours battling the hawkers, traders and crowds (and offers of mint tea) in the packed, humid, tangled labyrinthine souk in Marrakesh. Rarely sighted in Australia, pomegranates and pomegranate juice seem exotic luxuries that I was keen to taste.

Pushing the pomegranate into this primitive looking but cool machine, only hundreds of little red berries (called arils) remain. These hundreds of tiny liquid sacs are placed in a juicer along with a touch of orange blossom water (it's new to me too!), to produce a blood red syrupy juice.

The tartness startles a dry mouth with the first sip (a bit like cranberry) but remains just sweet enough to be truly refreshing and thirst quenching.

Marketing of the product makes it sound like liquid tiger balm, associated with being the magic elixir for a whole host of diseases and ailments. It is undoubtedly healthy with lots of vitamins but I suspect the claims are vastly overstated.

Available throughout parts of north Africa, the Middle East and Turkey, seek out a local stand for juice from this wonderful juice and help recover from the parching desert heat.

Photo Credits: juice, pomegranate

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

This drink is awesome, I like the color and the taste of the fruit itself. Great post.

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Henry Williams said...

That looks very delicious I've never seen it like that

Mark H said...

@henry: I have started to see it on the supermarket shelves in Sydney but it doesn't look anywhere near as nice as the juices I had in Morocco. They also have great orange juice there, freshly squaeezed and very economical.

Exotic India Journey said...

wow: this is very nice blog

Mark H said...

@exotic india: Thank you

Natalie said...

I love drinking all the fresh juice drinks in Turkey. They are scrummy. My favourite will always be the orange juice though.

Mark H said...

@natalie: The orange juice is superb in the Middle East countries but there is something more exotic about pomegranates...

house for sale Philippines said...

How I wish to taste this pomegranate juice, it is quite exciting and cool. Thank you for this blog. Keep sharing.


Charles A

Mark H said...

@charles: I thought you may be able to get pomegranates in Philippines?

Heather on her travels said...

I enjoyed a drink of pomegranate juice in Instanbul before being persuaded into a carpet shop - I believe it has some very healthy properties

Mark H said...

@heather: I think it has been shown to improve the sales of carpets.

Anil said...

So refreshing in the heat and very healthy too...well, if there's not much sugar added ;)

Mark H said...

@anil: Too much sugar spoils it in my view. The refreshing element comes from that nice crisp tart flavour. Did you see it much in Northern Iraq?

 
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