You won’t believe how much better this homemade cranberry juice is than the store bought varieties until you try it for yourself. You can adjust the sweetness to make this the beverage the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Plus, you get to utilize fresh cranberries, which most people avoid when they are in season. That is a sad reality because cranberries have a very limited season, usually from mid-September to late-November or early-December. The point is that you have about two months to use these flavor and nutrient bombs, so get them while the gettin’s good.

There are different types of bottle cranberry juice. The best variety to purchase is the 100% pure cranberry juice, which does not contain added sugars or preservatives. That juice only contains cranberries and the natural sugars in them. Cranberry juice cocktail, for example, can contain nearly 30 grams of sugar in an eight-ounce serving. That doesn’t include the other preservatives and chemicals that that juice cocktail contains.

Fortunately for you, you can avoid all of that if you just make your own cranberry juice. Unlike a traditional juice recipe, this juice comes together with the aid of your blender. First, you will blend the cranberries and water until smooth. Once you do that, pour the blended cranberry mixture through a cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve and strain it into a bowl. Make sure to squeeze all the pulp to get as much liquid out as possible. Once you do that, add that strained liquid back to the blender withe the remaining ingredients, blend, and then serve over ice when ready.