Pure cranberry juice-how the hell does anyone drink this?

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

”Cranberries are, I think we can all agree, Nature’s Most Disgusting Berry. Cranberries taste like cherries that hate you. Cranberries taste like what a raspberry takes before its colonoscopy.”

Stranger

[Tamerlane]

@DrCube

Speaking of water, I have to water down all juices now. I started with the pure cranberry juice we got several years ago, but now drinking undiluted juice of any sort tastes like guzzling corn syrup. Far too sweet. Much more refreshing to mix it 50/50 or more with ice water.

Huh, I thought I was the only weirdo like that around. Love the flavor of cranberry juice( sweetened )but I always cut mine by half as well.

[terentii]

I used to hate pomegranate juice (I thought it tasted like beets, which I also did not care for AT ALL). Now I drink it all the time, but only mixed with iced spring or soda water, or with Sprite or 7-Up. Straight pomegranate juice is still too strong for my taste.

[Yorkshire_Pudding]

It somehow doesn’t surprise me that the basis of a drink which - although also comprising a lot of water and sugar - is quite sharp and bitter, is very sharp and bitter in its pure form. I’d still be curious to try it though.

Oh, and the NHS reckons that cranberries don’t do a right lot for UTIs. If the NHS could get you to treat yourself with cartons of supermarket juice drinks, they sure as hell would!

[eschereal]

If you try pure cranberry juice, do not buy the quart bottle, unless you want to mix it with other stuff after your first taste. I got some once without realizing it was unsweetened, and felt like I needed to shave my mouth after my first swig.

[DummyGladHands]

@pulykamell

I don’t see anything in my post that contradicts that. That’s exactly why I bought it. The stuff that was $8 for that size was a concentrate. Something like this. (I used it for some hard cider I was brewing.) ETA: Pretty sure this is the exact stuff I bought. Looks like it’s 3 parts water to one part concentrate, not 8:1.

That’s the one I bought. Sadly, I bought 2 bottles. Ah well, I will just keep mixing in the Gatorade (lo-cal). UTIs are so incredibly horrible I would try wearing a frog on my head if the doc. suggested it.

[AHunter3]

@running_coach

No, real (unsweetened) cranberry juice is incredibly sour and bitter.

And delicious if you like things that sour. Most people don’t.

If the person drinking it is drinking because it was recommended for UTI’s, don’t add sugar — if it worked equally well with sugar in it, the doctor would have said to buy cranberry cocktail, like Ocean Spray. And didn’t. The medical intention is to create what they call “an acid ash”, that your pee will have the acidic pee H they want it to have. (sorry)

You can safely add plain seltzer water though. (And vodka, I think).

[Mean_Mr.Mustard]

From The Cleveland Clinic:

“There is an active ingredient in cranberries that can prevent adherence of bacteria to the bladder wall, particularly E. coli,” says urologist Courtenay Moore, MD. “But most of the studies have shown that juice and supplements don’t have enough of this active ingredient, A-type proanthocyanidins (PACs), to prevent bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract.”

Overall, clinical studies on the efficacy of cranberry juices and extracts for the prevention of UTIs are conflicting.

In a 2013 meta-analysis, cranberry juice and tablets reduced the occurrence of UTIs compared to placebo in women with recurrent UTIs.

A 2012 Cochrane review concluded that cranberries did not significantly reduce the occurrence of symptomatic UTI, but cranberry juice may decrease the number of symptomatic UTIs over a 12-month period in women with recurrent UTIs.

Also, because supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is not known how much of the active ingredient each product contains. Therefore, many of the products may not have enough of the active ingredient to be effective in preventing bacteria from sticking to the bladder wall.

“The bottom line? Cranberry can’t hurt, and it may help,” Dr. Moore says. She says it may be worth trying if you struggle with UTIs as the risk in doing so is very low.