Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyer’s Guide
Written by Francis C. Kline Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
About the Author: Ms. Kline lives in the Livonia Michigan, a suburb of Detroit with her family. She is an active writer on the subject of natural health. Ms. Kline is passionate about living a healthy and natural lifestyle. Over the past five years she has transformed her life from being overweight and lacking personal energy to running over 4 miles per day and spending time with her kids and grandchildren. This book is dedicated to my grandfather Robert Smith. He owned a farm in Northern Michigan near Traverse City. I remember spending my youth on his farm milking the cows, picking fresh apples, raspberries and cherries. I also remember my grandfather telling me and my brothers about the health benefits of all of the fruits and vegetables he grew on his farm. But of everything he grew on his property he truly loved the tart cherry. I have fond memories running through his cherry orchards when they were in full blossom. I also remembered all of the stories of how the tart cherry helped to stop his gout and arthritis pain. He would tell us how he would drink a glass of cherry juice every day from his own cherries and how he could walk without joint pain. However, it wasn’t until I became an adult with my own joint pain did I truly appreciate his insight and wisdom. I believe tart cherry juice concentrate is what made him so active and energetic until his last days. I recently found many of his notes about farming, harvesting cherries producing tart cherry juice concentrate and what to look for in a tart cherry juice product. I know you will truly enjoy his pearls of wisdom.
Francis
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
The Montmorency Tart Cherry The majority of the U.S. tart cherry crop is grown in Northwestern Lower Michigan. The unique micro-climate and mineral-rich soil area of northwestern Michigan produces a wide variety of agricultural products including cherries, apples, peaches and more. In fact, the area stretching along hundreds of miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline produces some of the world's finest fruit. In addition, Traverse City, the largest city located in Northwestern Lower Michigan is called the “cherry capital of the world�. The reason for this nickname is this region grows over 60% of all of the tart cherries in the U.S. In fact, this area of Michigan is credited with being the location of the very first commercial tart cherry farm in the United States.
The History of the Tart Cherry
This history of the tart cherry and the history of the State of Michigan intertwines. In fact, the very first tart cherry tree was planted on Old Mission Peninsula (near Traverse City) in 1852 by Peter Dougherty. Mr. Dougherty was a Presbyterian missionary living on Old Mission Peninsula. Much to the surprise of the other farmers and Indians who lived in the area, Dougherty's tart cherry farm and trees flourished and soon other residents of the area started their very own cherry farms. The area proved to be ideal for growing sweet and tart cherries because Lake Michigan Arctic winds sweep the orchards in the winter and helps to cool the orchards in summer.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
The first commercial tart cherry farms in the Traverse Bay area were planted in 1893 on Ridgewood Farm near the site of Dougherty's original plantings on Old Mission Peninsula. By the early 1900s, the tart cherry industry was firmly established in the state with orchards not only in the Traverse City area, but all along Lake Michigan from Benton Harbor to Elk Rapids. Soon production surpassed other major crops. The first cherry processing facility, Traverse City Canning Company, was built just south of Traverse City, and the ruby-red tart cherry fruit was soon shipped to Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. The Montmorency is the primary variety of tart cherry grown in the region. It was planted in the early orchards and is still used today. These type of tart cherry fruit is excellent for pies, preserves and juice. The newest American variety of tart cherry is the Balaton. Dr. Amy Iezzoni developed this tart cherry variety at Michigan State University. It currently has limited production, but has great potential for the fresh market and for juice.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
So What Makes the 18 Mile Long Old Mission Peninsula So special? Some of the reasons the Old Mission Peninsula is so fruitful is the high hills, the surrounding water and the wind drainage. The geographical area of Old Mission makes it an ideal place to grow cherries since the snow during the winter months actually help to keep the orchards warm in the winter and the wind from the surrounding lakes cools the orchards during the summer months.
Old Mission Peninsula boasts over 2.6 million cherry trees and since a single cherry tree produces about 7,000 cherries, this means the Old Mission Peninsula produces approximately 18,200,000,000 tart cherries every harvest season.
The Montmorency Tart Cherry The Montmorency variety of the cherry family is extremely delicate. This is the reason you probably won’t find fresh Montmorency tart cherries in the produce section of your local grocery store. The majority of the Montmorency tart cherries are used as an ingredient in recipes including cherry pies, cherry recipes, cherry powder and tart cherry juice concentrate. However, before learn
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
about how to select tart cherry juice concentrate for your lifestyle, let’s learn how the cherries are grown and harvested from blossom to bottle. The cherry blossoms are a beautiful white and make a perfect backdrop for a family picnic. As the orchards fill with cherry blossoms, they are extremely beautiful and a relaxing place to enjoy a relaxing stroll. As you can see from the following photo the cherry orchards are an excellent contrast to the following countryside.
The cherry harvest occurs in mid July to early August. As the cherries get ready for harvest a number of workers, farm equipment and “shakers” descend upon the orchards to gather all of the cherries. During the harvest, the main work horse equipment is the “shaker”. Since the average tree produces over 7,000 cherries, the shaker replaces the need to handpick each cherry from the 2.6 million cherry trees.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
The Cherry Shaker The shaker grabs each tree and shakes the cherries free. As you can see in the photos below, the shaker also has a canopy to catch the fallen cherries. Once the cherries are shaken from the tree a conveyor belt carries the freshly harvested cherries to a tank of cool water.
The photo below shows a conveyer belt full of recently shaken cherries.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
The operators view of the shaker, canopy and conveyor belt.
A close up view of the canopy and conveyor belt.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
Once the cherries are shaken from the trees they are then transferred to a processing station where the twigs, leaves and other debris are removed. After the foreign objects are removed at the first set of processing stations they are moved to another area where the freshly picked tart cherries are sorted, pitted and sent for further down the line for processing. At the following stations in the processing cycle, the cherries are then washed repeatedly. Here are some photos of the tart cherries being processing in the plant.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
Once the tart cherries are sorted and pitted, many of them are then pressed to make cherry juice. The juice is then placed through a number of quality assurance and quality controls screens to ensure the juice is completely filtered of foreign objects. The cherry juice is then pasteurized and concentrated and placed into 52 gallon drums. At this point the cherry juice concentrate is then bottled, frozen or packaged into 52 gallon drums for future use.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate It takes approximately 100 tart cherries to make just one ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate. Cherry juice concentrate is a super charged way of getting the anti-oxidant benefits of the tart cherry. Here are six areas consumers should look for when selecting tart cherry juice concentrate. These include: The type of cherry used to produce the juice Quality of the cherry juice concentrate Taste – Reflected by the crispness of the juice How is the cherry juice packaged How stable is the product Does the product offer a sediment-free guarantee Type of Cherry Used to Produce the Juice: Many different types of cherries exist on the market today. These include sweet, balaton, tart, etc. Although all of these varieties are from the cherry family, however the majority of research you read about the health benefits of cherries has been conducted on the tart cherry. Quality of the cherry juice: Unfortunately, not all cherry juice concentrate products are the same. One very important area you should consider is the brix (pronounced bricks) level of the cherry juice purchase. Brix is the measurement of quality for tart cherry juice concentrate. The brix is the measurement of the amount of naturally occurring sugar in the cherry juice. Cherry juice is measured at 68 brix. Be sure to know the brix level in any cherry product you buy and make sure it is of 68 brix. The brix information should be printed
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
on the product label or published on the website. If the brix level of a concentrate is lower than 68 brix, you should inquiry why this number is less than the 68 marker. Quality companies will tell you they offer 68 brix concentrate on both their labels and in their advertising. Taste – Reflected by the crispness of the juice: Like any other consumable product you would purchase, taste is very important. Cherry juice is available is a number of different options including plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass bottles. One of the main benefits of drinking cherry juice from a glass bottle is that glass bottles help to prevent plastic leaching. Leaching is a well known fact in the food industry. Leaching occurs when a product is bottled in a plastic container and the food actually pulls or “leaches” plastic molecules from the bottle directly into the food. Fortunately, leaching is not a concern for cherry juice packed in glass bottles. Bottling of Cherry Juice: Bottling for cherry juice is available in two ways: cold-packed and hot packed. Below is a basic definition of each:
Cold-packed – Some companies that follow the cold-packing bottling process simply pump cherry juice concentrate from 52 gallon drums directly into individual bottles. Cold-packing is also the less expensive way to bottle cherry juice concentrate since some companies simply fill their bottles over a utility sink. In addition, companies selling cold-packed cherry juice indicate cold-packed cherry juice must be refrigerated. It is also wise to have cherry juice concentrate that is processed in plastic bottles to be shipped in a refrigerated container. However, many companies selling plastic bottle cherry juice concentrate don’t refrigerate their products while shipping. This simply doesn’t make sense. It would be like shipping a gallon of milk across the country and telling the customer to immediately refrigerate upon arrival. This simply doesn’t make sense.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
Hot-packed - The cherry juice is pumped from a 52 gallon drum, flash pasteurized, and then packed into individual bottles. Hot-packed cherry juice concentrate is shelf-stable and doesn't need refrigeration during shipping, storage or until the product is open. After the product is open it does need to be refrigerated. Hot-packed cherry juice can be shipped without refrigeration and is shelf stable. The hot-pack process is very similar to the canning process where all of the oxygen is removed from the bottle. Hotpacked concentrate is packed in glass bottles. Glass bottles eliminate the fear of “leaching” Unfortunately, some companies lead the consumer to believe cold-packed cherry juice is never heated (pasteurized). This is simply not true. Cherry juice concentrate is packed in 52 gallon drums and prior to the cherry juice being packed in these drums the product is flash pasteurized or heated. Thus, if a company simply pumps the cherry juice from 52 gallon drums and fills individual bottles the cherry juice has been heated. If a company indicates that their product is cold-packed and has not been heated, they may not be telling the whole truth.
Stability: Product stability is vital not only for shipping purposes but also storage. The majority of companies selling cherry juice are selling cold-packed in plastic bottles. This means the product should be refrigerated during shipping and storage. Yet many of these companies freely ship cold-packed cherry juice across the country in unrefrigerated cardboard boxes with statements saying the product must be refrigerated when the product is received. This simply doesn't make since. It would be similar to shipping a gallon of milk from New Jersey to Texas in a cardboard box and asking the customer to place it in the refrigerator when it arrives. Hot-packed cherry juice can be shipped without refrigeration and stored without refrigeration.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide
 Sediment-Free Guarantee: Sedimentation is a concern for many cherry juice drinks. Sedimentation occurs when the concentrate breaks apart and thick residue settles on the bottle of the bottle. Sedimentation may be a result of poor quality concentrate or a poor bottling process. Look for cherry juice products that offer a sediment free guarantee. One brand of tart cherry juice concentrate that meets all of these criteria is the tart cherry juice concentrate available from Traverse Bay Farms www.TraverseBayFarms.com or call them toll-free at 1-877-746-7477 In addition to offering tart cherry juice concentrate, Traverse Bay Farms also offers tart cherry capsules, tart cherry powder, dried tart cherries and more. Another company that meets all of these criteria for cherry juice concentrate is Sky View Farms. The company offers fresh cherries, canned cherries and cherry juice concentrate. Sky View Farms can be contacted 1-616-565-7488
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate Buyers Guide