100% Juice.

While having a lovely breakfast with Auntie Dac the Friday following the Thanksgiving festivities, she served two juices which really picqued our interest---and our tastebuds: Blueberry juice and Pomegranate juice.

Auntie Dac also encouraged Finkie and Jipper to sample some juicy--to the point of being messy!---pomegranate seeds, which the boys promptly declared "delicious."

So a few days ago, while cruising down the juice aisle at my local grocer's, a Blueberry-Pomegranate juice blend caught my eye. As usual, this blend had a base of apple juice. But in addition to the Blueberry and Pomegranate juices, it included the juice of the Aronia berry.

I decided to investigate.

It turns out the Aronia berry is also called by the unlovely and non-label-friendly name of "chokeberry." As you might guess, the berry got that name because it is extremely tart and bitter, thus . . . hmm . . . surprising the person who was so bold as to pluck it from the bush and plop it straight into the mouth!

That said, Aronia berry can be made into tasty jellies and jams. And it certainly seemed to add a nice layer of flavor to our bottle of Blueberry-Pomegrante juice.

And I got to thinking: that's really how life is, isn't it? The tart and the bitter would be too strong to take standing alone. But, fortunately, those strong flavors blend with the many sweet things in life and, in the end, add a dimension that makes the entire experience somehow richer.

The Aronia berry looks somewhat like the Indian Hawthorne. It has showy white blossoms giving way to glossy deep violet berries. It does have a colonizing growth pattern, but nevertheless it can be used as a shrub or hedge. Since it can withstand a good dousing--it's common in wetlands--I think it might be a good choice for the raingardens we hope to plant in the spring.

More [here] and [here].

*** Photo from kindbook.com.