Tart’ cherries info…
This weekend I chanced to drop by a cherry shop (to buy tomatoes).while I was there, I noticed various sizes of bottles of cherry juiceand containers of juice concentrate in the cooler. I asked thesalesclerk for the prices. He gave me prices and volunteered muchinfo. He said the concentrate was made from a different kind ofcherry than the bottled juice and that he had people coming from allover the state to buy the concentrate for their gout. The concentrateis made from “Montmorency” cherries (which are tart and not usuallysold fresh to the public these days). He said that the bottled juicehe had (Bing or Black Cherry, I forget) was mainly for a beverage andhe insinuated that it didn’t have much effect on gout.
In the past, I have tried the occasional quart or 1/2 gallon bottleof pure Black Cherry juice (Knudsens or Trader Joe’s in California)in between or during attacks but I wasn’t able to tell if it helpedor not. (Usually I loose interest when the pain is not there, so I’venot taken it for any long stretches).
Maybe part of the reason some people swear by cherries and othersfind little or no effect is due to the particular variety of cherrythey try, maybe the tart ones have a more pronounced effect.
I don’t post very often but I’ve been a ‘lurking’ member of this listback since March ‘99 (archives post # 7). ….BJD
Links and info….The Montmorency Concentrate was about US$35, but it was made from 20gallons of cherries (the size of the concentrate looked to be abouta 1/2 gallon or so. They also have a smaller US$25 size that theywere sold out of for a few days. There was also a hand pump availablethat fit into the concentrate bottles so you could pump out a shot ata time. I got the impression there was no other ingredients in theconcentrate (need to ask), it kept in the ‘fridge’ for months (6 or12, I can’t remember).The cherry shop I dropped by is C.J. Olsen Cherries in Sunnyvale,California. Their WEB site is http://www.cjolsoncherries.com but it’shard to find mention of the Tart Cherry concentrate on their site(the salesclerk said they ship product UPS all over thecountry(world?).Best to try e-mailing them at bings@… or phoning at1-800-738-2464 to confirm this.
On Olsens’ I found a link the “Cherry Marketing Institute”(http://www.cherrymkt.org/index.html)and they have all sorts of info on the health benefits of cherries,especially the tart ones. They have links to other sources all overthe USA (http://www.cherrymkt.org/wheretobuy/index.html). The Healthinfo… http://www.cherrymkt.org/health/index.html
More than you wanted to know about cherries, eh! ..BJD