Redcurrant juice - how to prepare delicious and healthy currant juice quickly and easily

Collection and preliminary preparation

Like any other berry, currants are harvested when they are fully ripe. In fully ripened fruits, the twig is slightly dried out and easily breaks off the bush. Usually the berries are removed along with it to ensure better transportation. The delicate skin of red currants is easily deformed, so you should not delay processing the berries after picking.

First of all, the fruits are freed from the stalks and transferred to a wide sieve. Pour cool tap water into a large container and immerse the grid with berries in it. The water is changed, and the manipulation of rinsing the berries is carried out a couple more times. To allow the berries to dry a little, let them stand in a colander for 20 minutes.

If you plan to freeze the currants, then the fruits should be dried more thoroughly.To do this, they are scattered in a small layer on a waffle or paper towel to get rid of excess moisture. Read more about ways to freeze red currants here.

Options for preparing fruit juice

Basic recipe

This option is considered classic and involves boiling syrup. The technology is as follows:

• Berries, 300 grams, crushed in any convenient way. This could be a regular fork, a blender or a potato masher. At the same time, red currants do not require preliminary blanching, since the skin of the fruit is very thin.
• The berry mass is ground through a metal grid or sieve. An ordinary tablespoon comes to the rescue here.
• Boil syrup. To do this, add 5 large spoons of sugar to a liter of water. As soon as the liquid boils, add the remaining currant pulp to it. Boil the fruit drink base for 5-7 minutes.
• Next, filter the hot syrup through a fine sieve and wait until it cools almost completely.
• The juice extracted at the first stage is added to the warm berry compote.

Since red currants are considered a rather sour berry, the amount of sweetener can be adjusted based on your taste preferences.

To make the fruit drink truly refreshing, you can add specially prepared ice cubes.

The video from the “Simple Recipes” channel presents detailed instructions for making fruit juice from red currants.

"Raw" fruit drink

The drink prepared according to this recipe is considered the healthiest and very quick to prepare. The syrup, as in the previous case, is not boiled. Berries, half a glass, pour 1.5 glasses of cool water. The main thing is that the water is clean, not chlorinated.

Immediately add 2–2.5 tablespoons of sugar.Using an immersion blender, grind all the ingredients until smooth and let them stand for 15 minutes so that the sugar is completely dissolved. To speed up the process, mix the mass thoroughly.

At the final stage, the finished fruit drink is filtered and poured into a beautiful glass.

The berry pulp should not be thrown away. It still retains a lot of useful substances, so it’s best to put it in a bag or small container and freeze it. In winter it can be used for cooking compotes. An example of winter preparation of a redcurrant drink is described in our article.

With honey

This version of fruit drink is prepared using any of the technologies described above. The main feature of honey juice is that sugar is replaced with a natural beekeeping product. The quantity is adjusted to your taste.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that honey cannot be added to a hot liquid, much less boiled. All its beneficial properties are immediately lost. Therefore, the sweet ingredient is added to the fruit drink at the very end, in a completely cooled broth.

Properly prepared honey-based currant juice is much tastier and healthier than a regular drink.

The “ItsKseniasTime” channel shares details of preparing fruit juice in a slow cooker with honey.

From frozen red currants

Of course, you don’t make red currant fruit drinks for the winter, but during the winter months you can also enjoy fresh vitamin drinks. To do this, you only need to have a spacious freezer with large supplies of summer berries.

Frozen currants, 1 cup, pre-defrost. To preserve maximum nutrients in the berries, do it slowly, using the positive compartment of the refrigerator.

When the berries thaw, they are punched with a blender.By the way, pre-frozen currants, after thawing, choke very well. Therefore, if you don’t have a blender at hand, a fork will come in handy.

The pulp and juice are ground through a wire rack.

The cake is transferred to a saucepan, covered with half a glass of sugar, and poured with a liter of filtered water. Boil the remaining berries over low heat under a lid for about 10 minutes. The hot syrup is poured through a sieve, removing the remaining skins and seeds. The cooled syrup is combined with berry juice and served.

Winter recipe without cooking

You can also make a quick fruit drink from frozen red currants without first boiling the syrup. Without defrosting, 150 grams of fruit are transferred to a deep measuring cup or a special container for use with a blender. Add 1.5 tablespoons of sugar and pour boiling water (300 milliliters).

The berries are crushed and the fruit juice is filtered. A winter drink with a summer taste is ready!

How to store currant juice

In general, fruit drinks should be drunk immediately after preparation. But if the need arises, the finished drink is poured into a jar with a tightly screwed lid and put in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours.