Korea

Korean pomegranate tea

Sometimes YouTube suggests videos about tea, even when I'm not looking for them. Today's post came from one of those. Since the Olympics are currently finishing up in South Korea, I figured why not? This is also the season when pomegranates are available, so it seemed like a good time to try. Actually this isn't so much tea as hot fruit juice. You could probably make this much easier with bottled pomegranate juice, but when have I ever done things the easy way?

Korea is split into 2 countries. North, and South. Sadly, the most I knew about the Korean peninsula as a kid was from M*A*S*H reruns. Hardly an accurate representation of Korea. Thanks to the internet, there is a lot more information about North and South Korea available. I never realized that South Korea actually had 2 islands. Over 80% of their population lives in cities now, a shift from their rural past. Education is very important to their society, with students often attending intensive study programs after school. Less information is available about the north. Apparently the majority of the population lives along the coasts. They also had a large expansion in population from the 1960s to the 1990s. I was surprised to read that tigers once lived in the area, but have largely moved out due to environmental changes. 

Today's project is kind of like tea. I was amused by the video, so I decided I would make it. If you want to watch the video, it's very entertaining. This lady has a good camera presence. 

I opted to make a smaller batch, so I just got one, small pomegranate. 

It was a juicy one. I did wear an old shirt, but I opted to pick it apart with my fingers instead of whacking it with a wooden spoon. That looked fun, but I was afraid that I would whack myself more than the fruit, especially since this was a bit smaller than the ones she had. Even with the less splashy hand picking, I also still found little spots of pomegranate juice on the wall. 

But I still ended up with a nice pile of seeds. I also didn't have a tool to mash them up the way she did, so I put some in a mug and attempted to mash them with the back of a spoon. I would also add to do all of this over the sink. It's kind of messy sometimes. I figured the fruit was sweet enough, so I didn't bother with adding any sugar. 

I had never tried pomegranates until I went to college. Some of my friends were absolutely wild about them, and were excited whenever they were available in stores. I get them occasionally, but I never really eat all the seeds before they go bad. The juice is nice, but then you always get the seed taste at the end. What happens when you add hot water?

You get this! It's kind of a diluted juice flavor. It is pleasant, and I could see someone who does not like traditional tea trying this if they have a really bad cold. It tastes like fruit. You get all the seeds, and whole kernels at the bottom of the cup. I guess you could strain it if that would really bother you. Then again, you might as well buy a bottle of pomegranate juice and save yourself a lot of time. I did like the flavor, but I don't think using the whole kernels rather than just the juice really added anything to it.