Strawberry wine

Fruit wines are generally prepared by yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) fermentation of sugared juices or diluted concentrates. Fruit wines volatiles include aroma compounds at are already present in the fresh fruit and remain unchanged during processing and aging.

Strawberry wine of good quality has the appealing color of premium rose wine. When frozen berries are employed to make wine, these are first thawed and the juice is extracted.

The juice is ameliorated to 22 °Brix by the addition of cane-sugar added in stages e.g. 25% of the total sugar added to prepare the must and the rest during fermentation.

Sweetening before aging preserves flavor and color but the sweetened wine must be stored under refrigeration to prevent refermentation.

Strawberry wine is difficult to filter. Addition of a peptic enzyme would be desirable with this variety. Treatment with enzymes mainly pectinases, inhibits polymerization and increases color extraction and color density in strawberry wine.

The composition and maturity of the fruits and mold contamination affect the quality of the wine. But over-ripe fruits with higher anthocyanins and total phenolics, give wines with better color than fully ripe fruits.
Strawberry wine

Blueberry wine

Blueberries are the highest rated among 60 different fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capabilities.

Blueberries are versatile in that they can make equally good dry red table wines and sweeter dessert wines.

It is recommended that fully ripened, even a bit overripened, blueberries be considered in order to achieve good color and flavor.

Some of the best blueberries for wine are those which commercial packers discard as ‘floaters’ in the washing process. These are overripened and generally perfect for winemaking when carefully assorted.

The winemaker needed twenty pounds of blueberries to make five gallons of blueberry wine.

A study found that blueberry wine delivered 38 percent more antioxidant anthocyanins than red wine, which is touted for its cardioprotective capability.

According to a study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 4 ounces of white wine contained 0.47 mmol of antioxidant; 4 ounces of red had 2.04 mmol and the same amount of blueberry wine boasted 2.42 mmol of protective antioxidants.
Blueberry wine

Peach wine

Fruit wines are fermented from the fruits contained in their name. Plum wine, peach wine, apple wine, regardless the flavor, it will be explicitly stated on the packaging, especially if it’s not a grape product.

A very good fruit wine can be made from peaches. Ripe peaches are picked when they begin to drop and are crushed and pressed immediately, because browning and bitterness result for excessive skin contact time.

The pits must be removed in order to avoid the astringent and bitter phenolic compounds which are extracted during fermentation. The juice is settled and fermented cool to retain the delicate character.
Peach wine

Apple wine

Apple wine is originated in Germany and like its name suggest is a fruit wine made from apples. Its original German name is Apfelwein.

In England and in several European continental countries apple wine (hard cider) is produced in important quantities. In fact, the coder of Normandy is nearly as famous as French Burgundy or Roquefort cheese.

In general, the process used is the same as that for making wine from grapes. Apple is first pressed and the pressed juice (must) is fermented.

Apple wines can commonly have a higher alcohol contents. Natural fermentation is suppressed by inoculation with pure, cultured yeast (cold-fermenting yeast). These wines will inevitably have been fermented using wine yeasts not natural or ale yeasts, since only wine yeasts are tolerant to the high alcohol levels.

The wine yeasts will impart their own flavor profile to the apple wine, moving it further away from a true cider.

Federal regulations define apple wine as ‘the product of the normal alcoholic fermentation of the juice of sound ripe apples, with or without the addition of cane, beet or dextrose sugar for the purpose of perfecting the produce according to standards, but without the addition or abstraction of other substances expect as may occur in the usual cellar treatment’.
Apple wine

Peach juice

Peach juice drink is a product prepared by dilution of peach pulp or peach pulp base. Cloudy concentrate is pulp base with some of the water evaporated. And clear juice concentrate is peach pulp or pulp base that has the insoluble material removed by peptic enzyme treatment and filtration followed by evaporation.

The juice of peaches acts as a good spring-cleanser and blood purifier. It contains the vitamin A, B and C and is especially useful for those who are anemic, have a sallow complexion, or are troubled with high blood pressure, gastritis, acidosis, bronchitis, asthma, obesity or weak digestion.

Health benefits of peach juice are attributed to the presence of different classes of bioactive compounds which include phenolic compounds, carotenoids, and indigestible polysaccharides.

The healthy properties of phenolic compounds are widely attributed to their antioxidant capacity, which is dependent on their chemical structure, mainly on the number and position of hydroxyl substituents.

A peach juice cocktail can be made by using the juice of 3 peaches, a dessertspoonful of lemon juice and a teaspoon of honey.
Peach juice

Wine from banana

Anaerobic fermentation of green or cooking banana puree with Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces banana wine.

Overripe banana can also be utilized for wine making, but sugar has to be added to increase soluble solids. Banana wine played a prominent role in the ritual and social events of the major interlacustrine kingdoms of East Africa.

In Africa, the popularity of banana wine has, since the colonial period, given rise to periodic official alarms over the extent to which people concentrate on growing bananas for this purpose rather than as a food stuff.

During the pass millennia, banana wine came to the fore in both east and west Africa. Starches in bananas naturally breakdown into sugars as the fruit ripens, leaving a sweet pulp inside the darkening skin. That makes it challenging to peel and eat an overripe banana but facilitates the production of a fermented alcoholic beverage.

The Haya people of Tanzania have very specific rules governing the consumption of banana wine. A man sip his through a reed drinking tube from  a gourd with a long narrow neck.

Women can drink either form a banana -leaf cup or a short-necked gourd but must not use a straw.
Wine from banana

Melon juice

Melons – including canary, cantaloupe, casba, crenshaw, honeydew and musk – produce great-tasting, energy-producing juices.

Melon juice is an excellent drink for acne. It is almost a perfect food in that it has many vitamins and minerals. It is most helpful with constipation, kidney disorders and skin disorders.

Melon juices are summertime favorites. Fruit and melon juices supply carbohydrate and sugars the body needs to produce energy and keep working. Fill of vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting antioxidants, they nourish and help cleanse the body.

Cantaloupes and muskmelons are especially rich in vitamins A, B complex and C. This makes them good skin and nerve food.
Melon juice 

Cherry juice and health benefits

Cherry juice is a powerful drink, because it has so many minerals. It will make your body more alkaline by neutralizing acid waste in the blood, in the lymph liquid and wherever it goes. It will also help keep you regular.

Cherry juice has been shown to be effective in easing attacks of gout and gouty arthritis, with patients reporting greater freedom of movement in their fingers and their toes.

Black cherry juice is excellent for gout and prevents tooth decay by stopping plaque formation. Cherries benefit the glandular system, remove toxic waste from tissues and aid the functions of the gallbladder and liver.

The ellagic acid content has cancer-preventing properties. The parts eaten are the skin and the flesh.

Red cherries such as the Montmorency and Balaton contain phytochemicals called anthocyanins. Researchers from Michigan State University found that the antioxidant activity of the anthocyanins in cherries rivals that of vitamin E. They also inhibit the function of cyclooxygenase-2, an enzyme that’s major player in inflammation.
Cherry juice and health benefits

Alcoholic beverage of plum wine

Among the stone fruit, plum is an important fruit grown throughout the temperate regions of the world. With an attractive color and high fermentability, plum has potential for the preparation of alcoholic beverages including wine.

Plum juice may contain 20% sugar, the juice is not always expressed, but the plums are pounded or allowed to ferment together. The wine is then of an ugly brown color.

Plum fruit gives wine with an appealing color and acceptable quality. Plum wines are quite popular in many countries, particularly in Germany and Pacific coastal states. Among the cultivars including Santa Rosa, Methley, Green Gage and Santa Rosa plum made the best quality wine.

To prepare plum wine, water and starter culture are added to the plums and fermented for about 10 days before pressing for juice.

Plum fruit is acidic in nature and to make palatable wine, besides dilution of the pulp with water, the alternative available is use of a yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, as a de-acidifying agent in plum besides Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus used for alcohol production.

To produce quality wine, besides acids, a proper balance do tannin and good quality fruity flavor are prerequisite.

Plum wine can be prepared from plum fruits either with skin or without skin of the fruit, but wines have considerable differences on physicochemical characteristics.
Alcoholic beverage of plum wine

Mango lassi

Mango lovers have devised ways and means of using mangoes, ripe or raw, in every course of the meal.

Juicy ripe mangoes are used to make delicious lassi. Mango lassi is a traditional Indian drink that tastes kind of like a mango milkshake.

The basic lassi is a buttermilk or yoghurt drink, a salty or sweet that more or less has the consistency of a smoothie. Mango lassi is a combination of mango, sugar, and yoghurt.

Some people prefer their lassi with more yoghurt or buttermilk, others prefer it with more water and or ice.

Lassis are enjoyed chilled as a hot-weather refreshment.
Mango lassi 

Plum brandy

Brandies derived from fruit other than grapes are referred to as fruit brandies.

The generic name of plum brandy is Silvovitz and is the national drink of middle European countries such as Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Silvovitz, yellow plum brandy is aged sometimes up to 12 years giving it a straw color. It is distilled in the same way as kirsch but is aged in wood to a golden color.

Other popular brand names in the world of plum brandy are Mirabelle (produce from yellow plum) and Questch (made from mauve-colored plum variety).

Plum brandy is made from the fruits of Prunus domestica, a species that probably originated as a hybrid between the Europeans blackthorn or sloe and the cherry plum of western Asia.

Plum brandies produced in the Alsace region of France are mostly named after the variety of the fruit used.
Plum brandy

Is prune juice good for you?

Prune juice differs from other fruit beverages in that it is a water extract of dried fruit, rather than squeezing of fresh produce. Prune juice is an excellent source of iron and potassium.

Many people find that the consumption of prune juice helps to promote regularity of bowel movement. However, the amounts required to produce this effect vary considerably among different people, from as little as a small glass to as much as a pint or more.

Prunes consist of a water-soluble laxative principle and form the basis of many laxative preparations.

They are a good source of iron and other factors useful in hemoglobin rebuilding during anemia.

Prune juice is richer in fiber – both soluble and insoluble, - than plum juice and is often marketed as a remedy for constipation and for help with kidney stones. Insoluble fiber helps speed food though the digestive tract.

Prune juice also contains sorbitol, fiber and dihydrophenylisatin all of them and in improving constipation. Soluble fiber, on the other hand, is a slower moving fiber, good for lowering cholesterol and regulating blood-sugar levels.

Prunes are also rich in polyphenols, which include antioxidants that protect cellular deoxyribonucleic acid against damage, decrease inflammation, and may help prevent cancer.

Drinking polyphenols is of particular benefit to athletes because the substances are rapidly absorbed after ingestion, allowing for maximum concentration in the blood during exercise.
Is prune juice good for you?

Cherry wine

A good cherry wine is smooth and medium sweet, light but with full cherry flavors. The color depends on the type of cherries used.

Cherry wines are usually best made from sour cherries since sweet ones contain too little acid.

Late picked Montmorency cherries that are immediately crushed give a good wine.

Cherries contain pits that should be removed before wine production. It must be treated with SO2 inoculated with wine yeast and fermented like grape wine.

The bottled wine may be preserved either by germ-proof filtration or pasteurization.

This wine particularly requires great age, as it is a flat, dull wine, when young; but when it has been matured in the cask and bottled, it becomes limpid and sparkling.
Cherry wine

Prune juice

Before juicing, prunes should be soaked overnight in just sufficient water to cover. Remove the stones before passing the prunes though the juices machine.

Prunes juice is a well known laxative and form the basis of many laxative preparations. Prunes juice is ideal for detoxifying and treating constipation, prune juice is best drunk at room temperature first thing in morning.

They a good source of iron and other factors useful in hemoglobin rebuilding during anemia. Prune are a superb high fiber food. It is also rich in phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium all elements needed by growing youngsters.

It has a plentiful of vitamin C built in to enhance its absorption.

Ounce for ounce, they contain more fiber than dried beans and most other fruits and vegetable. Over half of this fiber is the soluble type that studies have linked to lowered blood cholera levels.

Eight ounces of prune juice provides 540 mg or 15% of the daily value (3500 mgs) for potassium and meets the other requirements. Prunes juice is a refreshing and beneficial juice at any time.
Prune juice

Extraction of Fruit Juice

Global fruit juice sales hit the 54 billion liter (BnL) mark in 2007 and are forecast to rise 15% by 2011 to 62 bnl.

Western European currently consume an average of 31 L of juice a year per capita. Juice is growing fast in Eastern Europeans (18 L are consumed annually per capita in Russia) as well as in India and China.

The extraction of juice from fruit is an ancient art dating from the earliest of records where wine is often mentioned.

Fermentation of fruit juice so the alcohol content preserved the fermented juice was one of the earliest forms of food preservation by the human species.

Preserved fruit juices keep their fresh taste and attractive color as long as they are not heated for too long or at too high a temperature. Prolonged boiling or heating changes the taste except with tomato and apricot juice.

Manufacturer of fruit juice has progressed from the farm or cottage industry into the efficient technology of modern food processing with the rapid changes in most technologies.

Throughout the temperature area of the world, fruits used for the major quantities of juices are citrus, pome and grape or vine fruits.

Hand picked fruit is generally of good quality and needs little pre-press treatment, but the growth of automatic harvesting, particularly with apples, creates may new problems of debris and dirt such as leaves stones and twigs, all of which need to be removed prior to pulping.

Methods of extracting fruit juices are dependent upon the structure and edible portion of the fruit.

Preservation methods include thermal treatments, freezing, chilling, concentration and for some clear juices, fine filtration.

Juice may taken apart by removing volatile flavour components, water, bitterness and acidity and then recombined to produce a consistent product. Fruit derived bases may be manufactured from the remaining fruit material after the juice has been extracted.

Pasteurization is often required to stabilize the product by removing microorganisms that could produce fermentation and/or spoilage, affecting clarity, taste and shelf life.
Extraction of Fruit Juice

Apple Juice

Apple juice is a clarified product that is pasteurized to make it shelf stable.

Apple juice comes in two versions: cloudy and clear. Cloudy apple juice is made simply by chopping or shredding apples and then pressing out and straining the juice.

Clear apple juice is cloudy juice filtered to remove solid particles and then treated with enzymes to eliminate starches and the soluble fiber pectin.

Apple juice works wonders at cleansing our body, especially liver, kidneys an gallbladder.

Apple juice has a high mineral content. It also contains malic acid which plays an important role in normalizing the intestines, has a detoxifying effect in the body and is good for treating muscle disorders.

Apple juice can lower blood cholesterol and can healing internal inflammation.

Apple juice also contributes some iron and potassium.

Apple juice has antiviral properties, making it a valuable preventive measure against colds, bronchitis and other viral infections.

Fresh apple juice is white just like the color of the apple after bitten into it. Bottled apple juice is brown because vitamins have been oxidized upon contact with the air.

A high percentage of the vitamin A in apples is concentrated in their skins. Therefore, the apple juice with highest vitamin A content will be the apple juice from unpeeled, organically grown apples that are juiced with their skin on.

The vitamin C content of fresh juice from both peeled and unpeeled apples helps prevent colds flu, and intestinal infections.

Other than that apple juice also contributes some vitamin K.

After cranberry juice, apple juice ranks the second among the best juices in terms of antioxidants activity.
Apple Juice

The advantage of juicing

The advantage of juicing
Juicing is one of the most powerful healing tools available.

Fresh, “live” juices supply the body with the concentrated nutrients and enzymes needed for the nourishment and regeneration of the body’s cells, tissues, glands and organs.

There have been numerous accounts of people who have healed themselves of degenerative disease using live juice as a therapy.

Juicing also is an easy way to ensure that our diet includes the five to seven daily servings of raw fruits and vegetables that are necessary to maintain health.

If you in reasonably good health, you should benefit from at least a pint of fresh juice a day; if you are trying to treat a specific disorder you will need to drink more.

When extracted juice from fruits and vegetables, leaving behind the pulp, fiber is lost, so we need to include other source of fiber in our diet.

Fiber is essential to proper digestion and optimal health, however, when juicing, it is actually a good thing that it is removed. Without the fiber all of the nutrients, enzymes, and phytochemicals extracted from fresh, raw produce can be quickly digested and absorbed by the body.

The digestive process absorbs a large percentage of the nourishment in whole raw fruit and vegetables. The body’s rapid absorption of raw juices quickly provides sells and tissues with the nutrient and enzymes needed to heal and regenerate.

There is no limit to how much live juice can be consumed safely. Two 8 ounce glasses a day will help maintain good health.

Drinking live juice helps the body to rid itself of toxins rapidly while providing needed nutrients.
The advantage of juicing

Nutrients in grapefruit Juice

Grapefruit Juice
Grapefruit juice differs slightly from orange juice in its nutrient profile. An 8 oz serving of grapefruit juice contains fewer than 100 cal and has the same amount of vitamin C as orange juice (72 mg, 120% of Daily Value).

One serving also provides approx 300 mg of potassium.

Grapefruit juice contains lower concentration of the B vitamin folate, thiamin and niacin than does orange juice.

Many compounds have been proposed as active components in grapefruit juice, including both flavonoids (naringenin and naringin) and nonflavonoids (6’, 7’-dihydroxybergamottin).

The principal flavonoid in grapefruit juice is the flavanone glycoside naringin.

Red grapefruit juice also contains trace elements of the carotenoid lycopene. Lycopene has the greatest single oxygen quenching capacity (in vitro) of the dietary carotenoids.
Grapefruit Juice

Cranberry Drinks

Cranberry Drinks
Cranberries or botanically name (Vacciunium macrocapron) for millennia have been a part of the diet of North American and used for medicinal purpose in folk medicine. Although cranberries are most familiar to consumers in North America, close relative of the cranberry also consumed in Northern Europe and Asia. In North America and Europe, cranberries are primarily processed and consumed in form of cranberry juices, cranberry juice cocktails, and cranberry fruit juice with the oldest cranberry juice recipe dating back to 1683.

Cranberries have only been cultivated for the last 150 year; therefore, relative to grapes and other cultivated fruits, there is little genetic diversity. The typical annual crop size is approx 500 million pounds, with 60% being used directly in beverages, 35% being processed into sauces and concentrates that are mostly made into beverages, and 5% being consumed fresh.

Cranberries are popular with the consumers because of their bitter-tart taste, and because of their positive implication for health as a functional food, they are one of the first functional foods in America. As a functional food, cranberry juice is associated with protection from urinary tract infections (UTIs). Cranberry juice may also be useful for promoting cardiovascular health and inhibiting cancer development, and suggestions have also been made regarding cranberry applications for improving oral and gastric health.
Cranberry Drinks