Most kiwi juice comes out bitter the first time, and people usually blame the fruit. The fruit is rarely the problem. Kiwi seeds are bitter, and a blender running for too long grinds them into the juice. Twenty extra seconds is the difference between a bright green drink and one you pour away.
Kiwi juice takes two ingredients and about ten minutes: peeled kiwis blended briefly with water and sweetened to taste. Blend only until smooth, around 20 to 30 seconds, and stop. The riper the fruit, the less sugar it needs, and a ripe kiwi should give slightly when you press it with a thumb.
Why kiwi juice turns bitter
Three things push it that way, and they compound. The seeds are the main one: whole they are harmless, crushed they release a bitterness that spreads through the whole glass. Under-ripe fruit is the second, because there is not enough sugar to balance the acid. The skin is the third, if you leave it on.
All three have the same fix: ripe fruit, peeled, and a short blend. If a batch still comes out sharp, pass it through a fine strainer, which catches the seed fragments and most of the pulp.
When it is drunk in Colombia
Fresh fruit juice at lunch is close to universal in Colombian homes, and the kiwi has been folded into that habit like any other fruit. It is not a traditional Colombian ingredient, and nobody pretends otherwise: it simply works in the same slot as lulo juice or tree tomato juice, which are the local versions of the same idea.
What it brings nutritionally
A kiwi carries more vitamin C by weight than an orange, along with fibre and potassium, and it is low in calories. Blending it into juice keeps the vitamin C and most of the fibre, unlike straining it through a juicer, which leaves the fibre behind.
That is a description of what is in the fruit, not a health claim. Kiwi juice is a pleasant drink with a good nutritional profile; it does not treat anything.
Combining it with other fruit
Pineapple, strawberry and orange all work, and all of them add sweetness, which is usually what a sharp kiwi needs. Start with more kiwi than the other fruit: kiwi is easily buried, and past roughly half and half you stop tasting it at all.
Kiwi Juice FAQ
Almost always the seeds. Whole they taste of nothing, but a blender running too long grinds them and releases their bitterness into the juice. Blend for 20 to 30 seconds, just until smooth, and stop there. Under-ripe fruit and leaving the skin on both make it worse.
Yes for juice. The skin is edible and full of fibre, but it is fuzzy and slightly bitter, and blending leaves that texture in the glass. If you want to keep it, scrub the fruit well first and strain the juice afterwards.
Press it gently with your thumb: it should give a little, like a ripe peach, without feeling mushy. A rock-hard kiwi has barely any sugar and makes a sharp juice no amount of sweetener quite fixes. If yours are firm, leave them a couple of days next to a banana.
You can, and it avoids the seed problem entirely, but you lose the fibre and most of the body. The result is thinner and more like a cordial. If you use a blender, which is what this recipe assumes, the short blend is what keeps it smooth.
Yes, and the amount matters more than the type here, because kiwi is acidic enough to need some counterweight. Add it at the end and taste as you go: ripe fruit may need almost none, while firm fruit can take a surprising amount before it balances.
More water and riper fruit, in that order. If it is still too thick or grainy, pass it through a fine mesh strainer, which takes out the seed fragments and pulp in one go. Do not simply blend it for longer: that is what causes the bitterness in the first place.
Pineapple, strawberry and orange, all of which add sweetness that a sharp kiwi wants. Keep kiwi as the larger share, because its flavour is delicate and disappears fast: at half and half you are mostly drinking the other fruit.
Drink it the same day, ideally within a couple of hours. It separates in the fridge, which is only cosmetic and stirs back together, but the flavour flattens quickly and the colour dulls from bright green to olive.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 kiwis, peeled (ripe: they should give slightly when pressed with a thumb)
- 2 cups water (about 475 ml; less for a thicker juice)
- Sugar, to taste (ripe fruit needs very little)
Notas
Instructions
- Peel the kiwis and put them in the blender with the water and sugar to taste.
- Blend for about 30 seconds, just until smooth. Do not go beyond that: over-blending crushes the seeds and turns the juice bitter.
- Serve straight away, over ice if you like. If it tastes sharper than you want, pass it through a fine strainer.
Comments
No Comments