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 »Juice of the Month

Blood Orange Juice

I always associate blood oranges with Indonesia, but I am always wrong.

Jakarta, the country's capital city, is where I first tasted blood orange juice in a tall, frosty glass and served with a thin, white straw on a warm, humid, overcast day.

The red-orange-like-a-pencil-crayon colour of the juice appealed to me right away. So did the name, appealing to a latent vampire tendency, I assume. Luckily, blood oranges have nothing to do with blood, beyond the similar hue. Still, the drink sounded like and looked like an incredibly exotic beverage that princesses would sip while lounging around looking beautiful and exuding a sense of ennui. I think I was lounging around and looking hung over and exuding a sense of regret, but never mind, the drink stirred more exotic mental pictures for me.

I didn't see much of Jakarta. I was there for a quick stopover after some beach time in Bali. So the blood orange juice is pretty much all the main thing I experienced about the city. And while I adored the name and the colour, I loved the taste most of all.

Despite my very dominant sweet tooth, blood orange juice dazzled my taste buds. This lovely elixir has the same appeal as orange juice but with a more tart, more acidic taste. Blood orange juice is not very sweet and makes you pucker in a way that classic, fresh-squeezed OJ doesn't. It almost hurts a little to drink the juice with a ghastly name, but it's a good kind of hurt and it doesn't last long, much like my stay in Jakarta.

As earlier noted, it turns out that blood oranges don't have much to do with Indonesia. They originated, according to most Google sources, from Sicily. An article from the Best of Sicily Magazine suggests that these tasty juice bearers made an appearance in Sicily in the ninth or tenth centuries, then proceeded to be cultivated around the world from there. So, that's where they come from. In more recent times, they've been cultivated in the southwestern US, mostly California and Texas. North Americans drinking blood orange juice are probably quaffing the Moro variety. Two others, Tarocco and Sanguigno, grow in the Sicily area.

The juice pictured here is a mix of about ¾ blood orange juice and ¼ navel orange juice. The season for these is spring. Internet sources vary on the length of the season. Some say March is the end, while others say blood oranges are still available into April and May. The cost in the Greater Vancouver area is about $1.50 per pound, so significantly higher than the common oranges.

Blood orange juice is a great way to top up your vitamin C and antioxidants. Have a drink and think of Indonesia Italy.