Cranberry juice has a tart flavor.
The cranberry is a small red berry that grows on an evergreen vine. It is a sour tasting berry, rich in vitamin C and used to make juice, sauce and jelly. While whole cranberries and cranberry sauce are available primarily during winter, cranberry juice is available year-round.
Prevention
Drinking cranberry juice will help prevent urinary tract infections, yet it is not a treatment for the condition. At one time, scientists believed cranberry juice made the urine acidic, thus killing the bacteria. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, recent studies show that cranberries prevent bacteria from affixing to the walls of the urinary tract. This makes cranberry juice a suitable prevention, yet not a cure for urinary tract infections.
Beverage
The most obvious use for cranberry juice is as a juice beverage, to drink in the morning instead of orange or grapefruit juice. Cranberry juice has a natural tart flavor, which is why manufacturers often blend the juice with other sweeter juices, such as apple juice or grape juice. When buying cranberry juice in the grocery store, it is also available as a fruit cocktail, such as cranberry-apple or cranberry-grape blend.
Mixer
Cranberry juice is used as a bar mixer. The Cape Cod is cranberry juice with a shot of vodka. The Cape Codder is virtually the same thing, yet includes a lime wedge. The Cosmopolitan is a cocktail made of vodka, triple sec, lime juice, and cranberry juice. Bay Breeze is a combination of pineapple juice and cranberry juice, mixed with vodka. Cranberry juice is an ingredient in some non-alcoholic cocktails, such as the Beach Blanket Bingo, which includes cranberry juice, grape juice and club soda. There are dozens of other cocktail recipes, which call for cranberry juice as an ingredient.
Recipes
Turkey and cranberry sauce is a traditional food pairing for Thanksgiving. The flavors of turkey and cranberries meld together when cranberry juice is an ingredient in a turkey marinade recipe. Turkey is not the only meat enhanced by the flavor of cranberry juice. A port-marinated tenderloin recipe, from "Cooking Light" includes cranberry juice cocktail as a central ingredient. When barbecuing or smoking meat, cranberry juice can be used to baste the meat.
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