Fresh Tangerine Pomegranate Juice

Favorite thing about winter: fresh citrus and pomegranate. These colorful, vitamin packed, immune boosting and delicious fruits get us through the long cold sea-breeze chilled months on this island. We find tangerines the best available citrus for juicing. Honey tangerines are our favorite, and will be in season around February. Right now we are enjoying Florida tangerines, Cara Cara oranges and blood oranges while they last.

Oh how I do miss wintering (part-time anyway) in Jamaica, like we have done in years past. Fresh fruits galore, although very expensive there, but are so flavorful and delicious and worth every penny. The “fruit-ladies” at the market surely miss us (at least our business with them). My all time favorite fruit would have to be sour sop. If you are lucky to ever try it, don’t miss out. Dreaming about a tall glass of sour-sop juice with fresh jelly coconut water right now. And sweet sop, East Indian, Julie and Graham mangoes, knees berry, star apple, custard apple, Ortanique oranges, honey bananas, oh I can go on and on…

But, lest I stray too far into Jamaican countryside fruit dreams, lets get to the juice at hand…

I juice the citrus and pomegranate separately and then mix the juices in the glass. To juice the pomegranate easily, I first apply pressure to the whole fruit by rolling it under my palm. This helps to release the pomegranate segments from the pith and starts to crush them to release the juices within. Then, holding the pomegranate over sieve over a bowl, I cut it in half and remove all of the seeds from the fruit and drop them into the bowl. I press the seeds to release the juice through the sieve.