Pomegranate Juice
Pressed arils, strained and left alone: sharp, tannic and entirely unsweetened, which is everything grenadine is not. It drinks closer to a dry red wine than to a fruit juice, and that dryness is what it lends a drink.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Cranberry’s depth without its bitterness: dark, dry and lightly astringent, closer to wine than to squash.
Storage & Handling
Refrigerated once opened, always: it is fresh juice and behaves like one.
Shelf Life
Opened: 5-7 days refrigerated. Unopened: see the bottle.
Usage
Poured as the dark backbone of punches and dark-fruit serves, carrying citrus and spice the way cranberry does but with less bitterness and more depth. Buy 100% juice, since blends trade the tannin for sugar.
Grenadine Before the Sugar
Pomegranate juice is grenadine before anything has been done to it: pressed arils, strained, and nothing added.
It drinks closer to a dry red than to a fruit juice, with tannin enough to leave the mouth slightly taut. That is unusual in a juice and it is exactly what a drink borrows, since almost nothing else non-alcoholic brings structure rather than only flavour and sugar.
Structural Work
In a glass it carries rather than decorates. Punches use it as the dark backbone that holds citrus and spice together, which is the role cranberry plays elsewhere but with less bitterness and considerably more depth.
That makes it a useful base for a substantial non-alcoholic drink as well. Where most fruit juices need something else to give them body, this one has its own.
Buy 100% Juice
The buying rule is short: 100% juice or nothing, and ideally not from concentrate. Bottles labelled juice drink are usually padded with apple or grape and sweetened.
Those blends trade away exactly the tannin that made the juice worth using, and a drink built on them tastes of the trade. The label is the whole quality control available here, since colour tells you nothing.
It stains, which is worth knowing before opening a bottle over a light surface. Pomegranate pigment is the same family that colours blackberries and butterfly pea, and it comes out of cloth considerably less readily than it goes in.
Not Grenadine
Grenadine is this juice sweetened and reduced into a syrup, so the two are related and behave nothing alike.
Swapping one for the other moves a drink’s sugar and its acidity in opposite directions at once. A recipe calling for juice and built on grenadine arrives sweet and flat; the reverse arrives sharp and thin, with the colour but none of the body.
Making grenadine from it is straightforward, which is the useful consequence. Reduce the juice with sugar and it becomes the syrup, so one bottle covers both jobs and the homemade version tastes of pomegranate rather than of colouring.
Top Tips
- Buy 100% juice: bottles labelled ‘juice drink’ lean on apple, grape and sugar, and they read as squash in a cocktail.
- It is not grenadine: swap one for the other and the drink loses either its sugar or its freshness.
- Its tannin reads like dry wine: balance it with sweetness rather than more citrus.
Possible Substitutions
- Cranberry juice: brighter, more bitter, same job in a punch
- Grenadine with other sugar halved: the sweetened stand-in
Production Method
Pomegranate arils pressed and strained: good bottlings are 100% juice, sometimes from concentrate. Grenadine is a different product, this juice sweetened and reduced into syrup.
Common Questions
Is pomegranate juice the same as grenadine?
No. Grenadine is pomegranate juice sweetened and reduced into a syrup. The juice itself is sharp, dry and unsweetened. Swapping one for the other moves a drink’s sugar and its acidity in opposite directions at the same time.
Which pomegranate juice should I buy?
100% juice, ideally not from concentrate. Bottles labelled juice drink are usually blends padded with apple or grape and sweetened, and they trade away the tannin that made the juice worth using in the first place.
What drinks use pomegranate juice?
Punches and dark-fruit serves, where it provides the backbone that carries citrus and spice. It also makes a substantial non-alcoholic base, since it brings structure rather than only flavour, which most fruit juices cannot do.
Can I make grenadine from it?
Yes, and it is the usual route to a decent one. Reduce the juice with sugar until it thickens and you have grenadine that tastes of pomegranate, which a good many commercial bottles do not. One purchase then covers both jobs.
Featured In These Cocktails
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits