How Many Pomegranates It Takes To Make One Bottle Of POM Wonderful

With more than 15,000 acres of orchards in central California, POM Wonderful — the leading brand of fresh pomegranates and pomegranate juice — processes hundreds of thousands of tons of pomegranates each year. From that harvest comes the bottled pomegranate juice sold in grocery stores year-round.

If you've ever extracted what I like to call nature's little jewels from a pomegranate, you know it's a tedious process even when using the mess-free method to open a pomegranate. That, and if you've ever juiced all the seeds in a single pomegranate, you probably know it leaves you with barely half a glass of juice. For that reason, it may be worth letting POM Wonderful handle the heavy juicing. Each 16-ounce bottle of POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice contains the juice of approximately four pomegranates. The price of a bottle is typically much less than what you'd pay for four whole pomegranates, plus it saves you the hassle of extracting them.

As you can imagine, POM doesn't rely on factory workers to tirelessly extract the arils from every pomegranate. Instead, the company uses custom-designed proprietary extraction equipment for its unique process to juice the whole-fruit. This means when you drink a bottle of POM Wonderful, you're not only drinking the juice from the arils, but the juice produced from four entire pomegranates. Like most plant foods, nutritional properties are found throughout the whole fruit. The arils contain a large share of the antioxidants pomegranates are known for, the seeds provide anti-inflammatory fatty acids, and the peel contains a high concentration of phytonutrients —protective compounds that support overall health.

If you've never experienced POM Wonderful juice, you can find it in the refrigerated produce section of most grocery stores. The juice comes in its signature bottle shaped like stacked pomegranates and is available in 8, 16, and 48-ounce bottles priced anywhere from $2.49 to $9.99. While the price may seem high compared to shelf-stable pomegranate juice made from concentrate, the difference comes down to quality. 

Growing, harvesting, and whole-extracting tons of pomegranates into juice is a labor of love in itself. Beyond that, the company also uses flash pasteurization to help maintain the nutritional qualities that come from extracting four whole fruits, plus keeping the bottles refrigerated while transporting across the nation. Shelf-stable pomegranate juice is great for convenience and long-term preservation, but the trade-off is intensive, high-heat processing that degrades delicate nutrients and natural flavor compounds; producing a juice that lacks the brightness and the nutritional integrity of fresh juice.

Whether the juice's tart, fruity flavor is used to spice up cocktails or mocktails they way Martha Stewart does or enjoyed on its own for its health benefits, a little goes a long way. Many beverage recipes call for a small amount fresh pomegranate juice, and research suggests heart health benefits begin after consuming only 1 to 2 ounces daily.