Soursop juice is guanábana pulp blended with milk or water and sweetened to taste. Three ingredients, ten minutes, and the only real work is picking the seeds out of the flesh first.
Made with milk it comes out thick and creamy, close to a milkshake, which is how it is most often drunk in Colombia. Made with water it stays light and the sourness of the fruit comes forward.
What soursop is, and what it tastes like
A large green fruit, heart-shaped and covered in soft spines that bend rather than prick, with white fibrous flesh inside and a lot of hard black seeds through it. It goes by guanábana across most of Latin America and graviola in Brazil.
The flavour is hard to place if you have not had it: somewhere between pineapple and cream, with a clear sour edge behind the sweetness, which is where the English name comes from. In Colombia it goes almost entirely into juice rather than being eaten out of hand, partly because of the seeds and partly because the flesh is too soft and fibrous to be pleasant on its own.
About the cancer claims
If you search for soursop you will run into the claim that it cures cancer, often with a figure attached about being thousands of times stronger than chemotherapy. It is worth addressing here plainly, because it is one of the most widely circulated health myths on the internet.
There is no clinical evidence that soursop treats cancer in people. Cancer Research UK states there is not enough reliable evidence that graviola works as a cancer treatment. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center notes that although it is widely promoted as an alternative treatment, clinical evidence is lacking and no large-scale human trials have been published.
The studies that get quoted were carried out on cells in laboratories. Results in a dish do not transfer to a human body, which is precisely why clinical trials exist. Nobody should delay or replace medical treatment on the strength of a fruit juice.
None of which is a reason not to drink it. It is a very good juice and that is reason enough.
The seeds are not edible
This is the part of the recipe that genuinely matters, and the instruction to remove the seeds is not about texture.
Soursop seeds contain annonacin, and they are not something to eat or to break up in a blender. Pick them out of the pulp by hand before anything goes near the jug, and check as you go, because they hide in the fibres and there are more of them than you expect.
The flesh is the part that gets eaten, and has been throughout the tropics for as long as the fruit has been grown. There is also research from Guadeloupe linking heavy, sustained consumption of soursop and of teas made from the leaves to a form of atypical Parkinsonism, which is a reason to treat leaf infusions and daily supplements with caution rather than a reason to avoid an occasional glass of juice.
Buying it: fresh or frozen
Outside the tropics, frozen pulp is the practical answer and there is no shame in it. Latin and Caribbean groceries sell it in bags of around 400 grams, and it is what most Colombian households abroad use.
The reason fresh soursop is rare and expensive has nothing to do with growing it and everything to do with moving it. The fruit bruises if you look at it wrongly, and once ripe it goes from perfect to brown within a day or two. It is a bad traveller.
Frozen pulp has one practical advantage too: the juice comes out cold without needing ice, which means it is not diluted.
Choosing a fresh one
If you do find fresh fruit, judge it the way you would an avocado.
- Press it. A ripe soursop gives slightly under thumb pressure. Rock hard means unripe, and it will not ripen well once picked.
- Look at the spines. They soften and bend as the fruit ripens. Stiff spines mean it needs a few more days.
- Look at the colour. Bright green is early; a duller, darker green is right. Brown patches mean it has gone.
Once it is ripe, use it. This is not a fruit that waits for the weekend.
Milk, water, and how sweet to make it
With milk it is richer and rounder, and the sourness of the fruit is softened into something closer to a dessert. With water it is thinner and sharper and better in real heat. Colombians drink both, and milk is the more common.
Sweeten last and taste first. Ripe soursop carries plenty of its own sugar, and how much it needs depends entirely on the fruit. Sugar, honey and condensed milk are all used; condensed milk goes particularly well with the milk version and makes it very rich.
Straining is optional. Soursop flesh is fibrous, and blending leaves fine threads in the juice. Some people want them gone and some do not notice.
Other Colombian juices
- Lulo juice — the tart one, and the most Colombian of all of them.
- Borojó juice — the thick one from the Pacific coast.
- Blackberry juice — mora, the everyday one.
- Passion fruit mousse — if you want the fruit as a dessert instead.
Soursop Juice FAQ
A large green tropical fruit with soft spines and white, fibrous flesh, called guanábana across most of Latin America and graviola in Brazil. It tastes like a cross between pineapple and cream, sweet with a clear sour edge. In Colombia it is used almost entirely for juice rather than eaten out of hand.
No, and this is worth being direct about because the claim is everywhere online. Cancer Research UK states there is not enough reliable evidence that graviola works as a cancer treatment, and Memorial Sloan Kettering notes that clinical evidence is lacking. The studies people cite were done on cells in laboratories, not in people. Nobody should delay medical treatment on the strength of a fruit juice.
They are not edible. Soursop seeds contain annonacin in concentration, and they should never go into the blender. Pick them all out of the pulp before you start. The flesh is the part that is eaten, and always has been, across every country that grows the fruit.
Milk turns it into something close to a milkshake, thick and creamy, which is how it is most often drunk in Colombia. Water keeps it light and lets the sourness of the fruit come through. Both are normal; milk is the more common choice and takes sweetening better.
Press it gently with a thumb, the way you would test an avocado. A ripe soursop gives slightly, the spines soften and bend rather than staying stiff, and the skin darkens from bright to dull green. Unripe fruit is rock hard and will not ripen well once picked; overripe goes brown and mushy within a day.
Frozen pulp, in Latin and Caribbean groceries, usually in 400 g bags. Fresh soursop is rare and expensive outside the tropics because it bruises easily and lasts a day or two once ripe. The frozen pulp is genuinely good here and has the practical advantage that the drink comes out cold.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g soursop (guanábana) pulp (about 10 oz; frozen pulp is what you will find in the US, and it works perfectly)
- 2 cups milk or water (milk makes it creamy and rich, water keeps it light and lets the fruit through)
- Sugar, honey or condensed milk, to taste, optional (ripe soursop is already sweet; taste before adding anything)
Notas
Instructions
- Take the seeds out of the soursop pulp. Do this properly and do not let any go into the blender: the seeds are not edible and should not be crushed.
- Put the pulp into the blender with the milk or water, and the sweetener if you are using one.
- Blend until everything is smooth and combined.
- Strain it if you want it smoother. It is fine either way, and unstrained it keeps more body.
- If the pulp was not frozen, add ice.
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