How to Make Cherry Juice

This blog post is going to cover something really simple: how to make cherry juice.

I’m a big fan of cherries: frozen cherries, fresh cherries, basically anything cherry.

However, you don’t often see people talking about cherry juice. It’s just not something that you see often if at all. Think about it, when was the last time you’ve seen cherry juice for sale? You just don’t. So, if you want it, you’re going to have to make it yourself.

How Do You Juice Cherries?

Ok, the basic process of juicing cherries is that you’re going to press the juice out of them using an auger juicer.

This is a key point. You squeeze the juice like you would from olives or other fruit such as lemons. However, the meaty flesh of the cherry requires even more pressure than a citrus juicer.

That’s why you can’t use something like a basic lemon juicer or a basic juicer machine that works with apples and hard vegetables.

So, I advocate for an auger juicer.

Aside from that requirement, it is also imperative that you clean and prepare the cherries before you juice. I’ll go into more on that in the next section.

Finally, you just take your prepared cherries and run them through your juicer as you would any dense fruit. I like to mix cherry juice with a piece of fresh organic turmeric or a whole lemon with the peel. This turns it into a super anti-inflammatory juice.

Do you Have To Pit Cherries To Juice Them?

Yes, and don’t let anyone tell you different.

I have seen some advertisements for juicers online that claim you can juice pop in un pitted cherries. Bad decision!

You either want to learn how to hand pit your fresh cherries, or you want to buy frozen pitted cherries.

My advice would be to either get a cherry pitter, if you are using fresh cherries, or else buy frozen pitted cherries.

The only problem with using pre-pitted cherries is that sometimes one slips through that does have a pit in it.

Now, that’s unlikely to break your juicer….but it might.

So, to be on the safe side, what I suggest that you do is to thaw the cherries and use a manual chopper (you can use a cutting board and knife, or even test them with a fork) to make sure that they don’t have pits in them.

However, as a rule my number one suggestion would be to buy fresh cherries and use a cherry pitter to remove the pits and then juice the cherries.

Can You Juice Cherries in a Juicer?

Yes, you certainly can. In fact, there’s no other way to make cherry juice (don’t get me started on the food processor method!).

Basically, you should only be using a juicer when making juice. You can’t blend cherries and strain out the juice. That’s not going to work.

If you want to blend cherries, then make a cherry smoothie.

But, yes, you can use any good quality auger juicer if you’re going to make cherry juice. My suggestions would be to use one of the following juicers:

What Can You Use Cherry Juice For?

This one is super interesting. Basically, cherry juice is one of the most powerful anti-inflamatory juices you can drink.

It is also one of the best tasting. Who doesn’t like cherry flavor?

Really, it’s one of the few things that people love the flavor so much they artificially make sweets taste like cherries!

How often have you seen a garlic or turmeric flavored candy? No, but cherries are just as powerful an antinflamatory as those.

What I like to do is make a post workout juice that includes cherries. It’s great to drink at the end of the day because cherries also have natural melatonin which helps you relax and sleep well.

So, the two main things I would suggest that you use cherry juice for is:

• Post Workout Recovery
• Help With Sleep

I’ll link out to some interesting studies at the end of the article. They will cover some of the recent peer reviewed articles that discuss the health benefits of cherry juice when it comes to inflammation, workouts, and also as a sleep aid.

How Do You Make Cherry Juice from Dried Cherries?

This is not something that I advocate you do. Let’s take a look why:

First, dried cherries often have sugar or oil added to them. That’s not something you want to have in your juice.

Aside from that, there is a common additive to dried cherries used to make sure that they are preserved.

These are the three things that you want to avoid having in your cherry juice: preservatives, sugars, and oil.

Besides that, they are dried! That means you would have to reconstitute them with water to get anything from them. The drying removed the liquid: and by soaking them in water you saturated them with water not juice.

So, you get very little real cherry juice and also most likely a lot of negative health benefit.

So, skip dried cherries for juicing (I do like organic dried cherries for things like oatmeal, granola, and salads) and stick to real cherries.

My Perfect Cherry Juice Recipe

Here’s my go to cherry juice recipe. I make this in an Omega juicer and it comes out super tasty.

I use a half a lemon (with the peel) because I like to cut the sweetness of the cherries with a lemon. It adds a tartness that is really nice.

1 Half Organic Lemon (make sure to wash!)

1 Cup Pitted Cherries (I use a cherry pitter–links below–but you can also hand pit with a fork)

1 Cup Organic Kale

1 Small Cut of Fresh Turmeric

That’s it. I only make a serving large enough to drink. It’s not something I make a lot of and then store in the fridge. This is a nice sized juice to have at the end of the day.

 

Here’s a few good cherry pitters. If you are going to make cherry juice, then you definitely need to buy one. It’s safer than using a knife which can slip and cut your hand.


 

Support Articles and Studies:

Cherry and Melatonin

Cherry juice for Arthritis

Drinking Cherry Juice for Better Sleep

Broad Based Health Benefits of Cherry Juice