Kwaree Blog

POM Wonderful Vs. Langer’s Pomegranate Juice

We went to Costco this afternoon. It wasn’t something we wanted to do, it was something we were forced to do. We were totally out of food.

I really hate it when that happens. We get so hungry that we eventually turn on each other. We start giving each other strange looks and odd things begin to happen. When one of us catches the other licking their lips, we get in the car. It’s terrible.

It was a good visit though. We decided that we should really start the shopping in the opposite direction of the one we usually walk. That way, we can put the heavy items in the cart first, without smushing all the delicate items, such as lettuce. We did this and it worked great…until we got to the register, where we were introduced to the opposite effect. The light items came out of the cart first and, if we didn’t do some shuffling, they would have gone back into the cart first. This means they would have gotten crushed. We shuffled some stuff and things worked out just fine.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Costco today was to buy some POM Wonderful pomegranate juice. Please don’t ask me what this new fascination with juice is all about. I wouldn’t have an answer for you. I think I just need to get it out of my system.

When we were about half way done with our shopping, we strolled through the big juice area. I asked Laura if she wanted to go ahead so I wouldn’t bore her with my POM juice hunt and she readily took me up on the offer. Once she was gone, I started looking for the pomegranate juice. For some strange reason, I couldn’t find the POM. All I couldn’t find was the Langer’s pomegranate juice. I was a little disappointed, but thought I should at least get the Langer’s because it said “100% Juice” on the label. I read the ingredients and they were: pure pomegranate juice from concentrate, water, natural flavors, etc…I think that was it. I hesitantly picked it up and walked away. I was a bit sad because I wanted to try the POM.

On my way over to the produce area, where Laura was, I saw the other big juice area. This was the expensive one. The POM juice was sitting there staring me in the face. I hustled over to it and picked it up. Now, this was the real deal. The only problem was that the juice cost $9.99 for 60 fl. oz. I thought that was a little expensive. I began to put it down when Laura walked over to me to check out the juice. She has a very nice habit of humoring me at times like this.

I started telling her that this juice cost too much and I would just get the Langer’s because it was only around $6.50 for the same amount. She said, “Well, is it the same thing?” I said, “Sure it is.” Then, I started thinking about it. Was it the same thing? They were both 100% pure pomegranate juice from concentrate and both looked the same, but why the price difference? I started looking closely at both drinks.

I remembered back a while ago when I bought a Langer’s juice in Hannaford, where we used to live. I wasn’t in love with it because I thought it was a little watered down. Then, I thought back of the time I sampled the POM juice, which is what made me want to buy this stuff in the first place. It was more syrupy.

I picked up both juice bottles and looked closely at the bottoms of them. The Langer’s was clean, but the POM had about a half inch of sediment at the bottom. To me, this was the proof. I started thinking, “They may both be pure pomegranate juice, but what is the water content of each juice?” I had a feeling that POM had a lot more pomegranate in it.

In the photo above, the sediment is being mixed up. The bottle is clear, so you can get a feel for how thick this stuff is.

When we got back to the house, I poured myself a small glass of juice. I wanted another taste of this “Chinese Apple” goodness. I took a sip and was happy to find out that I made the right choice. It was as rich as I remember. Just FYI, pomegranate juice tastes kind of tart. I like it, but if you aren’t into tart, you might not like this juice.

Okay, that was my little pomegranate juice story. I hope you liked it.

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The Health Benefits Of Black Currant

This was something I was totally unaware of, so I am guessing many of you are unaware of it too.

After the tennis clinic this morning, I stopped by Whole Foods to grab some sushi. I also got some ice cream and whipped cream. I have been jonesing for a warm brownie sunday. I mean, I really want one. I explained this to Laura in great detail last night. Ruby Tuesday makes the best one I have ever had, but I am not at Ruby Tuesday, so I have to handle this myself.

I got what I needed and was ready to go to the checkout counter, when I realized that I was a little thirsty. I usually just drink water because buying drinks is a huge rip-off, but I figured that since the sushi was going to cost so much anyway, what’s wrong with treating myself to a little juice? I walked over to the juice area and lifted my hand to pick up a small “Pom” pomegranate bottle. My hand got about half way to the product, when I noticed that the little bottle cost $3.89. What??? That was out of the question. Then, I saw another store brand pomegranate drink and actually picked this one up. It was only $2.99, but still a very small bottle. I decided to put that back down when I saw a 2 quart bottle of black currant juice for lest than $3. That was more along the lines of what I was looking for. I basically bought it because the label said that black currant is high in anti-oxidants.

Currant Affair - Black currant juice

After I left the car and started driving, I cracked that bottle open and gave my new juice a taste. It tasted different, but pretty good. I continued drinking for the rest of the ride.

When I got back to the house, I decided to do a little research on the health benefits of the black currant. As it turns out, the black currant is a pretty healthy food to eat.

Now, let me be clear – the black currant is very healthy, but the drink that I got has a lot of sugar in it. I’m sure if I spent a heck of a lot more money, I could have gotten a more “pure” juice. For my purposes, this did the job.

You can read up of the blackcurrant over here and check out the health benefits here, but let me just tell you that it has an extraordinarily high vitamin C content, good levels of potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B5, and a broad range of other essential nutrients (I got that from Wikipedia). It treats diseases, ailments and aches. From what I read on Wikipedia, it’s pretty neat.

I really wish you would read about it. There is a long story about how the black currant was banned from being grown in the U.S. because of the threat it was to the logging industry. It’s pretty interesting reading. Who knew that a fruit was banned from being grown over here? Now that it’s back and grown in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon, it’s getting some traction again, but still remains fairly unknown.

Well, there you have it. A new food that is really good for you. Next time you are in that expensive juice aisle, you might want to check out the black currant.

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