Homely fruits can make great cocktails

This particular drink has been served at our house on countless occasions.  I can’t remember exactly when “pomegranate martini” became a household name around here, but I have no doubt we first discovered this desirable libation in some bar where it was on the menu.  No doubt it was good; and by good I mean there were going to be more of them in my future.  Perhaps being enjoyed in the comfort of my own home while wearing slippers.  Assuming  the history of this particular drink followed that of so many of our other house classics, the next thing that happened was I requested one at home and then Jon figured out how to make it.

While we’ve been drinking these for several years, I never really gave it a moment’s thought as to where pomegranates come from.  I mean, clearly the juice we use comes from the POM bottle that’s in the refrigerator, but I never really wondered about where it came from before it became POM.  While I don’t know the exact origins of the pomegranates that go into making POM, what we did learn recently while visiting Turkey is that pomegranates grow there.  Everywhere.  We found fruit-bearing trees growing haphazardly along backstreets, along dirt paths and along major roads.  Vendors on nearly every street in nearly every town were selling cups of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.  And almost without exception, every time I saw one of those sidewalk juice vendors squeezing the juice out of those poor homely fruits, all I could imagine is how good the juice would be mixed with a squeeze of orange and a shot of vodka.  Sigh. Alas, it was not meant to be.  Turns out that while pomegranates and their juice are plentiful in Turkey, vodka in a Muslin country is not.

Because of the amazing anti-oxidant/health promoting benefits that are associated with pomegranate juice, our standard toast for these drinks has become, “To your health!”  And wouldn’t you agree that a little dose of heathy goes a long way to making every hour happy?

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