Pomegreat pomegranate and blueberry juice drink

Author's product rating:   

Value for money	Poor
Product Quality	Satisfactory
Product package	Good
Taste	OK
How loyal are you to this brand?	Not very

Advantages:	Fairly tasty, meant to be healthy
Disadvantages:	Smells a tiny bit like pot pourri

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Shopping with Shortie, my youngest son is an experience. Today he was in a lovely helpful mood, and was putting things carefully into the trolley, including one or two items I hadn't asked him to put in. We were in the juice aisle buying drink cartons for packed lunches when I said that Pomegreat looked nice. As I returned to concentrate on the task in hand, I hadn't noticed that Shortie had taken this as an instruction to put the item into the trolley, which is why I ended up buying Pomegreat juice drink.

≈ The packaging ≈
The packaging has changed slightly since the picture at the top of this review. Now Pomegreat comes in a cuboid shape tetra pak carton, emblazoned with claims about the "goodness" of the drink. The word Pomegreat is still plastered up the front of the package, and the rest of the carton has the various healthy benefit claims and nutritional information.

≈ Best before? ≈
I bought Pomegreat today (March 11th 2007), and it has a best before of the end of Feb 08.

≈ The claims ≈
The front of the carton has the following claims:-
Can keep your cholesterol healthy
Packed with antioxidant vitamins
Refreshing and delicious
Helps maintain heart health
It also claims that this is a "Super juice drink".

On one side of the package it explains that Pomegranates have cholesterol reducing properties and that 8 pomegranates go into each 1 Litre carton.

≈ Opening the carton ≈
The carton has a screw top lid, which I am a relieved about. I am on of the most inept juice carton openers, and tend to leave a trail of devastation with each opening. Screw top lids do not prove as problematic for me, and this was reassuringly tough to open (No one else has tried opening my drink before me) without being so tough that I have to resort to shouting at it. The lid makes a clicking noise as you open the juice for the first time, letting you know that the seal has been broken.

≈ Pouring ≈
As you can probably tell from the above confession, my inability to pour fruit juice from certain cartons is also legendary. However this is an easy pourer, and I manage to get all the juice into the glass without spillages.

≈ The smell ≈
Now I wouldn't normally stick my nose into a glass before drinking, but in the interests of consumers across the planet I find myself doing exactly that. The smell is fresh and fruity, and I hate to say it but it reminds me of a Marks and Spencer's summer fruit Pot pourri that my Mum once had. I know for a fact that if I had smelt this "blind" without knowing it was pomegranate and blueberry juice, I would not have been able to identify either ingredients. I would have thought that the main ingredients were apple, raspberry (and perhaps pot pourri!)

≈ The colour and look ≈
The juice is a deep pinky red colour, not quite as dark as blackcurrant juice. It looks thick, and there are no seeds or other bits in it.

≈ The taste ≈
Despite the pot pourri undertones, I decide to take a sip, and am pleasantly surprised. Pomegreat has a fresh, fruity taste, without being over sweet. I can taste the pomegranate, but it definitely overpowers the taste of blueberries, which I think is a shame. At room temperature I found that it left a slight bitter taste in my mouth, but after refrigerating, or adding an ice cube, this taste disappeared. I think that it tastes more like it has raspberries in it than blueberries.

≈ Storage ≈
After opening Pomegreat it must be stored in the fridge, and be used within 4 days. I would suggest that you put it in the fridge before drinking too!

≈ Ingredients ≈
This is a juice drink, and is therefore not a pure fruit juice. Only 25% of the drink is made from Pomegranates and a tiny 4% from blueberries. Now I know why I can't identify the taste of blueberries. The drink also contains water, fruit extract concentrate and certain added vitamins.

It is free from artificial sweeteners, preservatives and colourings.

≈ Price ≈
As I said, I was shopping with an over helpful five year old, and didn't notice the price. On checking the bill it is £1.49 for a 1litre carton.

Availability
Available from most major supermarkets

≈ So, would I recommend it? ≈
Using Ciao's specific criteria, I would not recommend this product

Value for money ~ Poor. To me £1.49 seems a lot to pay for a 1 litre bottle of fruit juice DRINK. If I had been taking notice while doing the shopping I would not have bought this product.

Product Quality ~ Satisfactory. This is neither a good nor a poor product in my opinion. I think the taste could be improved by changing the mix of pomegranate and blueberries, and I would prefer a fruit juice without added flavourings.

Product Package ~ good. It is easy to open and easy to pour. It doesn't get an excellent from me because there is no mention on the package about whether you can recycle it or not. The writing on the package is clear and easy to read. The health claims are not backed up by any links to research, but Pomegreat is approved by Heart UK, the cholesterol charity.

Taste ~ OK. For all the reasons explained above, the taste is OK. It is not the nicest fruit juice drink I have ever had, nor is it the worse. I expect it might be nice added to Vodka, and might give that a try later to use it up!

Brand loyalty ~ Not very. Sorry, but I probably won't be returning to buy Pomegreat.

I must, in the interests of fairness point out that I did not buy this juice for any of the health reasons. I do not need to reduce my cholesterol and I am fairly confident that I get most of the Vitamins I need from my diet. However I still wouldn't buy it again as I am not overly impressed with the taste.

It gets an overall average mark from me, but that is more to do with the packaging than the product. I would rather spend my £1.49 on some fresh fruit, and maintain my heart health by going for a walk!