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Cherry Bay Orchards Tart Cherry Concentrate, No Added Sugar, 16 oz
$24.53
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Product Details
Cherry Bay Orchards is a Michigan grower brand, and this is the state's signature crop cooked down. Montmorency is the bright red tart cherry that orchards along the Lake Michigan shore grow more of than anywhere else in the country. It is too sour to eat out of hand, which is exactly why it presses into such a vivid juice.
The bottle holds concentrate, so it is meant to be diluted. The customary pour is one ounce, about two tablespoons, stirred into seven or eight ounces of water. Neat it is intensely sour and almost syrupy; thinned, it becomes a deep garnet drink with a clean sour-cherry snap.
It earns its keep in cooking too. Reduce it with stock into a sauce for duck, pork or lamb, stir it into oatmeal or plain yogurt, mix it with soda water and lime, or use it where a recipe calls for grenadine.
Ingredients
Cherry Bay Orchards Tart Cherry Concentrate...
$24.53
Questions About This Product
The things people actually want to know before they cook with it.
What is the difference between tart cherry concentrate and regular tart cherry juice?
Concentrate is cherry juice with most of the water removed, so it ships and keeps in a much smaller bottle and you add the water back yourself. Ready-to-drink tart cherry juice is already diluted and can be poured straight into a glass. Neither format is inherently better; concentrate gives you control over strength and takes up less refrigerator space, while bottled juice needs no mixing. Cherry Bay Orchards states that one 16 oz bottle of this concentrate makes a gallon of finished juice.
How many servings are in one 16 oz bottle?
Cherry Bay Orchards lists 16 servings per 16 oz bottle, based on a 1 oz pour of concentrate. At that rate the bottle yields about a gallon of mixed drink once water is added. If you use it as a splash in sparkling water or over yogurt rather than as a full glass, a bottle stretches considerably further.
Are Montmorency cherries the same thing as the cherries I buy fresh?
No. Montmorency is a tart or sour cherry variety grown mainly for processing, and it is not the dark sweet Bing-style cherry sold fresh in produce departments. Tart cherries are bright red, far more acidic, and are almost always sold dried, frozen, canned, or as juice. This concentrate is made from 100 percent Montmorency tart cherries.
Why does it taste so sour compared to the cherry juice at the supermarket?
Most supermarket cherry drinks are cherry juice cocktails or sweet cherry blends carrying added sugar or apple juice. This is juice from a sour cherry variety with nothing added, so the acidity is fully present and the concentration makes it sharper still. People who find it too tart mixed with plain water usually switch to lemonade, apple juice, or sparkling water as the mixer.
Where do the cherries come from?
Cherry Bay Orchards is a brand of Shoreline Fruit, a Michigan fruit company in the Traverse City growing region. The company states that the concentrate is a product of the U.S.A. and that its fruit is not blended with imported cherries. Michigan grows the large majority of the U.S. tart cherry crop, so a Michigan origin is the norm for this category rather than the exception.
What does the brand claim this does, and how strong is the evidence?
Cherry Bay Orchards markets the concentrate around sleep and antioxidant content on its own packaging and listings, and those are the brand's statements about its product. Independent reviews of the research describe the human evidence on tart cherry as early and mixed, drawn largely from small studies in athletes, and dietitians frequently point out that one serving supplies very little melatonin. This store is not making any health claim for this product. If you are considering it for a specific reason, that is a conversation for your own healthcare provider.
What can I do with it besides drinking it?
It behaves like a very intense unsweetened fruit syrup, so it works stirred into yogurt, oatmeal, and smoothies, or spooned over ice cream. Cooks reduce it further into a glaze for pork, duck, or roasted vegetables, and it is a common mixer with club soda and in cocktails. Because there is no sugar in it, it adds sourness along with cherry flavor, so taste as you go when you put it in a recipe.
Is this the same as tart cherry capsules or gummies?
No. Capsules and gummies are usually made from dried tart cherry powder or a standardized extract and are sold and labeled as dietary supplements. This is a food product: pressed cherry juice with the water taken out and nothing else added. The two are not interchangeable by volume, and the concentrate carries the calories and natural fruit sugars that a capsule does not.
Why does it say no added sugar when the sugar number looks high?
Every gram of sugar in the bottle comes from the cherries. Removing water from juice concentrates everything left behind, natural sugars included, which is why an undiluted ounce reads high on the panel. Cherry Bay Orchards notes on the label that this is not a low calorie food. Mixed at the ratio the brand suggests, a finished glass lands in the same general range as ordinary fruit juice.
Can I freeze it?
Yes, and freezing is a common way to make a bottle last longer, often poured into ice cube trays so one cube equals roughly one serving. Juice concentrate is sugary enough that it usually turns thick and syrupy rather than freezing rock solid. Thawed concentrate can look darker or slightly separated, which is normal; shake it before pouring.
Why is there sediment at the bottom of the bottle?
Fine cherry solids settle out of unfiltered juice concentrate over time and are not a sign that something has gone wrong. Brands differ here: some filter aggressively and advertise a sediment-free product, others leave more of the fruit in. Shake the bottle before each pour so the strength stays consistent from the first serving to the last.
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