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Ok, I can take a hint, so tonight on the way home I stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up some Sour Cherry Juice.

After my sour grape juice taste test, I was a bit cautious. I felt a little more secure about sipping the cherry juice, though, since it was clearly in the juice aisle, and not in the cooking aisle.

The Look
Deep red, with more body than cranberry juice. If it was a wine I would think it was cabernet.

The Smell
Like pie filling, subtle cherry with a slight earthy aftersmell. Maybe that’s the organic influence coming through.

The First Sip
Very sour, but not eyewatering, mouth puckering sour. Again, the pie filling smell is creeping in. This tastes like something I have drunk before, but like something I drank where someone put half a pack of Fun Dip in it. I check the bottle. They claim that it’s just water and cherry juice concentrate, no mention of added Fun Dip.

Second Sip
OK, that’s a little less sour, and I can’t shake that pie filling reference. That’s not a bad thing, I’m happy to eat a can of pie filling if I can’t be bothered to make a pie crust to carry it in. Could I ever crave a tall glass of Trader Joe’s Organic Sour Cherry Juice (TJOSCJ)? The jury is still out.

Take a Break
Time to do some vacuuming. Ok, in reality, Roomba is just stuck under the chair and I have to free him before his whiney beep routine kicks in.

Back to the Juice
Hmmm, tastes a bit more mellow now. Maybe TJOSCJ just needs to breathe a little. Next time, I shall decant first… I’m starting to identify that taste that I recognized from my first sip, it’s cranberry juice. Most likely some cranberry blend that I bought from Whole Foods for half the price. Time for a little secret, Whole Foods brand juice prices are routinely half the price of Trader Joe’s offerings. Buy a bottle of wine there, though, and you will more than make up the difference. Must be some sort of fermentation tax that they impose.

Finishing the Glass
Still sour, but not as sour as I would have hoped. Maybe my taste buds have acclimated, or are revolting. In any case, they are dyed red for the next few hours.

The verdict
Sour Cherry goodness. I will enjoy it here and there, but TJOSCJ isn’t unique enough to make any special trips for. Perhaps I need to try it as a mixer, I imagine that a GGTJOSCJ would be pretty good (GG=Grey Goose for the acronymatic impaired)

Next Up
I also picked up some Sparkling Blueberry Juice (pesticide laden, I suppose). Watch for the blow by blow taste test.

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.