Product Review: POM Juice
March 25, 2009The POM Wonderful company kindly sent me some of their POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice to review and I was happy to oblige. I am not a big juice drinker myself, but I do enjoy pomegranates and any all-natural product is sure to catch my interest.
Pomegranate juice has been proven to have an incredibly high level of antioxidants. It even trumps green tea and red wine as an antioxidant powerhouse. POM Wonderful funded $25 million for scientific research of this particular brand of pomegranates and found them to be related to other health issues as well, such as cardiovascular health.
My first taste-test of POM resulted in a twisted mouth as I swallowed. It was incredibly tart; one mouthful was enough for me. I also had a couple of other people give it a try; they each drank a full glass but agreed that it was not something that they would buy in the future. To be fair, a big factor for this is that neither of them drinks juice on a regular basis. One reviewer, although she didn’t dislike it, made the comment that this drink is so bitter that it actually made her mouth drier, so this would not be a good juice to have if you’re trying to quench your thirst. The other reviewer enjoyed it and referred to it as “liquid pomegranate” and she really enjoyed the bitter/sour taste.
However, I did have POM in a smoothie (during our week-long Sugar Challenge), and the smoothie was delicious. I think that mixed with other ingredients, this could be a really nice addition to smoothies or sauces (or cocktails!). The POM website includes a fair number of recipes for ways to use POM, many of which look very tasty. A lot of the recipes also include pomegranate seeds, a food that I love, but will have to wait to eat until they come in season once again.
This would appear to be a very healthy juice. I will not be buying it in the future (but I don’t drink any kind of juice, anyways, so that isn’t saying much), but I will be definitely adding the stuff that I have to smoothies. If you are a juice drinker I suggest you give this a try. I don’t think that it is entirely necessary to include POM in your life if you don’t like the taste (because you can still get the antioxidants and other health benefits from other nutritional sources- green tea is still plenty healthy for you!), but if you do like the taste then this would be a good addition to your diet. In moderation, of course- I’ve already turned orange from eating too many carrots; I don’t think the color of pomegranate juice would be a very becoming skin tone, either 😉
Have you tried POM Wonderful? What’s your take on it? Do you actively try to include products like this, which really emphasize the nutritional value of the product, into your diet?
Living Healthy in the Real World 
It’s good with seltzer! But I don’t drink juice either and I won’t buy it.
I took my case of POM to work and most everyone liked it. A few said they would buy it. My survey was skewed I think, in that my participants were mostly male, and I had given them the literature to read before they tried the juice. 🙂
I’m not a juice drinker either, but I love pomegranates so I tried POM Wonderful a while back. I’ve heard so many people say (or seen them blog) that it tastes just like eating a pomegranate, but to me it did not and I found it really disappointing.
Not a juice drinker. I will have the occaisional glass of it, but that’s about it. (although Burt’s Bees pomegranate lip balm is pretty awesome)
You know, I have never had pom. juice. I did love whole pomegranates as a kid. They were so much fun to chew and spit out! It was all great till mom saw my clothes on wash day, and the fun stopped 😦
Mom had a few new red rags after that wash!
I do love POM – have to try it in a smoothie!
I do love POM, but in small doses. I actually like pure acai juice much better, and it has (I think) the most amount of antioxidant for a small serving. It is a little more flavorful and not as tart as POM, but both do taste amazing in smoothies!
Oh, interesting that you found it too tart straight. We all thought that it had a pleasant mix of sweet and tart. We’re big fans of the juice after getting samples in the mail and have even tried some of their other flavors. The plain POM is still the favorite here! (Oh, and if you want to try tart, get some unsweetened cranberry juice. Talk about pucker power!)
I like POM juice….mixed with champagne! Yum.
Try mixing it with something like blueberry juice, or just add a little water.
I saw pomegranate seeds for sale at Costco the other day – was very tempted to buy them, but it was quite a large package, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to eat them all before they went bad. (Plus the fact that they were quite expensive…)
I looove POM
Maggie- that’s not a bad idea!
Cammy- Hehe every survey will be a little bit skewed 😉
JavaChick- hm. To each his/her own, I guess?
Tricia- LOVE. Burts. Bees.
Dr. J- haha. Pomegranate seeds are a nice treat.
Missicat- smoothies are good stuff.
Ruth- interesting, thanks for letting me know about that!
Cathy- hehe. I guess I’m just not used to drinking juice.
Bag Lady- just the seeds? But half the fun is extracting them from the pomegranate! 😀 And I like your thinking with the champagne. I love pomegranate seeds with champagne so POM juice would probably be delicious like that!
Westwood- this is what I was going to recruit you into trying! But then you had to go off and be spontaneous 😛
I did LOVE it…but Im more a fan of the fruit.
perhaps because I enjoy the process of squirting the staining stuff everywhere…as does the Toddler 🙂
I’m actually in the minority here Sagan. I really like this stuff and drink it straight from the bottle. I guess that makes me a bitter old man. 🙂
Thanks for the review, Sagan! I’ve seen this everywhere and it has me curious. Not a huge juice drinker, either, so I probably will stay away for now. 🙂 But the smoothies sound delish!
Can’t get in to this pom juice. Too bitter and too expensive. Although I really don’t like juice in general. Maybe in a martini 🙂
i do like it, but i’m not a huge fan of drinking my calories. To make it last, I like to put a splash in seltzer or i used to drink diet 7up plus 🙂 I just read someone used the juice instead of water to make packaged brownies and that sounds like a fabulous idea!
my take? meh.
It tastes fine but too much of it gives me a stomach ache since its so tart and the “research” they provide is FUNDED BY THEM so they can skew it however they want- and they didnt even do a good job. the facts arent real facts because they dont contain specifics.
im just bitter cause they sent me expired juice
MizFit- I can just imagine the fun that you and the Toddler have!
Tom- hehehe 😉
Holly- I’m looking forward to summer just because smoothies taste a million times better when its hot out.
Kristisummer- mm martini.
ttfn300- ooh so it would be a pomegranate infused chocolate brownie? Tasty! (And I don’t like drinking my calories very much, either)
Kelly- giggling at your bitterness- and I agree about the skewing, hence why I noted that all those dollars were sent in by them.
Thanks for the review. I haven’t tried POM yet as I’m just not a juice drinker. But it is a nice suggestion to add it to other things such as smoothies or pomegranate martinis =)
thanks for the review. 🙂
Yes i’ve tried it. I likes that it wasn’t watered down. I have a hard time paying for water…i can add that myself if needed. I don’t drink juice, but when i have an unlimited grocery budget will buy it and try new healthy recipes in my gourmet kitchen =). For now we keep things to the basics.
I was contacted by POM too but while it’s very good, I don’t drink juice. I’d rather eat a piece of fruit, it’s more filling and enjoyable. I just drink water (and lots of it) and the occasional diet soda for a little afternoon caffeine. However, I did cook an amazing dish once using POM juice as a stew base. It was a remake of “Khoresh Fesenjan” that used peanut butter and chicken instead of ground cashews and lamb, it was delicious!
We’ve tried it. It is good in smoothies (as you point out) or with seltzer water. 🙂
I am positive I am the last person in blog land that has not tried it yet!!
Big Girl & Juliet- mmm smoothie.
Trish- you’re welcome!
Fitness Surfer- and you know I am ALL about the basics 😉 But you’re right, it’s good that it’s not watered down because then we can do that ourselves.
Nick- Seeing as I am head over heels for pretty much all of your recipes I’m going to have to give that one a try! Generally the only things I drink is water, tea, and skim milk. I like munching on my calories.
Biz319- POM has certainly been making the rounds of the blogosphere!
I like it in my smoothies!
POM is alright. I would drink it daily if I had more money to afford it.
YOU WON SOME AWESOME ALMONDS!!!! Congrats 🙂
Email me your address at mkrueger@noelgroup.com and I will get them out to you early next week!
[…] to promote their products. Over the past year, different food companies have generously given me pomegranate juice, chocolate, applesauce, gum, peanut butter, tea, iced tea, soup, and more chocolate (the last three […]
[…] I tried the POM juice, it didn’t top my favourites. The taste was incredibly strong and for someone who typically […]
I love POM.. the only bad thing about it is TRYING TO OPEN THE BOTTLE!! It takes a pair of pliers to get the cap off & if I was dying of dehydration & needed a drink, I’d be in deep trouble.
Really this would appear to be a very healthy juice.
Too tart to drink?
Regardless of the fact that juices are primarily sugar water devoid of the beneficial fiber that is far inferior to someone simply eating the whole fruit, that judgment alone was sufficient to put the ‘review’ into perspective, as well as providing insight into reviews of any other similarly tasting fruit.
Heaven forbid you try orange juice!
…No wonder no one(sic) drinks the unhealthy energy drinks!
If one wants a juice, the problem ISN’T the taste…its the PRICE.
Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble
with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and
I ended up losing months of hard work due to no back up.
Do you have any methods to protect against hackers?