Can You Juice Cranberries in a Juicer?

It’s not that common to see cranberries on the menu at a local fresh juice shop. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t juice them.

In fact juicing cranberries at home is something I’m a big fan of. It’s much healthier than drinking cranberry juice that is loaded up with sugars.

What I’m going to do here is review the main ways you can juice cranberries and how to prep them.

Why Juice Cranberries In A Juicer?

That’s an easy question. Because cranberries are super healthy.

There are a lot of benefits to be had when you’re juicing cranberries. Some of the more popular ones include drinking cranberry juice for UTI.

However, cranberries are also a super food for other reasons. The advantage to drinking pure cranberry juice is that you’re going to get a lot of antioxidants including vitamin C and Vitamin A.

But won’t you also get these vitamins in a store brought cranberry juice? Not necessarily.

The issue with store brought cranberry juice is that you’re going to also get a ton of sugar. And for the most part this sugar is not even the worst of it. Most of the store brought cranberry juices will have a ton of high fructose corn syrup in it.

When you are aiming to drink cranberry juice you really only have two options:

Buy an organic brand that is pure cranberry juice.

Or

Juice them yourself.

The main reason that I like juicing the cranberry juice myself is that even sugar free cranberry juices are going to be pasteurized. That eliminates some of the health benefits. It’s the reason that I advocate always juicing fresh vegetables and fruits.

What Type of Cranberries Should You Juice In A Juicer?

You can go ahead and buy a bag of cranberries from Oceanspray  or any other brand. That works. The only thing to be aware of is that you might want to choose an organic brand.

Anytime you’re juicing a fruit and not peeling it (like a pineapple) then you should be aware of juicing the skin.

If you juice the fruit skin, then you do risk getting some chemicals into your drink. That’s why I like to either buy organic or else thoroughly wash fruit with an organic fruit wash.

I’ll cover that in a bit more depth in the next section.

But what I do suggest is that you only buy organic cranberries if you’re going to juice them. You can find Oceanspray organic as well as smaller brands and locally sourced cranberries.

How To Wash Cranberries To Juice?

The next thing to think about is how you’re going to wash the cranberries.

The good thing about cranberries is that unlike other berries, they are not too fragile. They won’t fall apart and get squished like raspberries or other fruits.

Also, you can juice them! In most cases I advise people against trying to juice berries. Things like blueberries simply don’t juice well.

Cranberries, on the other  hand, juice really well.

Wash them by soaking them in a bowl of water with some cleaning solution in the water. You don’t want to cranberries to soak in hot water. I would use warm water or cold water.

Then make sure that you’re rinsing the soap off. The last thing that you want is a cranberry juice that has the flavor of soap in it.

 

Can You Juice Cranberries In An Auger Juicer?

Not only can you, you should! I advocate you only juice leafy greens in an auger juicer and I second that opinion when discussing cranberries.

The reason is that cranberries are going to produce a wet pulp with regular juicers. You might even be tempted to run the pulp through over and over–but don’t do that. It can ruin a juicer.

The way to avoid wet pulp is to use an auger juicer that presses juice out instead of using a cutting disc.

Juicers are supposed to remove pulp, and when you’re drinking cranberry juice the health benefits come mainly from the phytonutrients in the juice.