I bought my first persimmons of the year last week and paid about a pound each for them, which is not something I would do with most fruit. These are worth it. A ripe persimmon is sweet in a way that tastes closer to apricot and honey than anything else in the fruit bowl, and they are in the shops from late September right through to Christmas. This is what I do with the soft ones. Three persimmons, two oranges, a thumb of ginger and half a lemon gets you three small glasses without turning the cooker on.
One thing to get right before you start. Persimmons come in two sorts and they behave nothing like each other. Fuyu are the flat, tomato-shaped ones stacked in the supermarket. They are fine to eat while still firm, though they turn sweeter and juicier as they soften. Hachiya are the pointed, acorn-shaped ones, and an unripe Hachiya is a nasty surprise: the tannins leave your mouth dry and furry for a good hour. If you have Hachiya, wait until they feel like a water balloon. If in doubt, buy Fuyu.
Why these ingredients work
Persimmon is most of what is in the glass. It is sweet enough that you need no honey or syrup, which is why the recipe is short. It brings potassium, and one glass carries about as much of it as a banana, plus carotenoids, the orange pigments your body turns into vitamin A. That is where the colour comes from. Orange adds the sharpness that stops it tasting flat and pushes the vitamin C to around 60mg a glass, more than a full day’s worth at UK reference levels. Ginger does the job it does in most of my juices, which is stopping a sweet drink tasting one-note, and it slices much more easily straight from the freezer. The squeeze of lemon at the end brightens the finish. I tend to drink this one before a long walk rather than after, because the sugars are quick and it sits in the stomach more like a smoothie than a glass of apple juice.
FAQ
Do you need to peel persimmons for juice?
Not with a juicer. Fuyu skin is thin and slightly waxy and it goes through a masticating or centrifugal machine without any trouble, so there is no sense in throwing away the flesh that comes off with it. In a blender I leave it on too, then strain, because the skin breaks down quickly and the pulp is thick enough to catch in the bag anyway. The one thing you must take off is the calyx, the leafy cap on top. It has four stiff leaves, and the only hard bits of the fruit sit just underneath it.
Can I make persimmon juice without a juicer?
Yes, and it is the easier of the two methods when your persimmons are very soft. Put everything in the blender with 100ml of cold water and blitz for a minute, then pour it through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve. Do squeeze the bag properly. Persimmon pulp is thick and it will happily sit there holding on to a third of your juice. Leave the water out if you are using a juicer, it only dilutes the glass.
What does persimmon juice taste like?
Sweet, slightly thick, and closer to apricot nectar than to apple juice, with a honey note at the back of it. Ripe Fuyu is mild and there is no sharpness in it at all, which is why the orange and the lemon matter as much as they do. If you have ever had a mouthful that tasted dry and chalky, you had an under-ripe astringent persimmon rather than a bad recipe.
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Persimmon and Orange Juice
Equipment
- 1 Juicer masticating or centrifugal
- 1 High-speed blender for the blender method
- 1 Nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve to strain the blender version
- 3 Airtight glass bottles for storing any you do not drink straight away
- 1 Budget cold press juicer a great value alternative
- 1 Budget blender a great value alternative
Ingredients
Juice base
- 3 ripe Fuyu persimmons soft like a ripe tomato, calyx cut off. Fuyu are the flat, tomato-shaped ones and they are the safe choice. A Hachiya needs to be almost jellied or it will dry your mouth out
- 2 oranges peeled down to the flesh, pith removed
- 10 g fresh ginger peeled, more if you like the heat
- 0.5 lemon peeled, added at the end
Only for the blender method
- 100 ml cold water skip this if you are using a juicer
Instructions
Juicer method
- Cut the leafy calyx off the top of each persimmon and quarter them. Do not peel them for the juicer, the skin is thin and the rollers deal with it. Peel the oranges down to the flesh, slice the ginger about as thick as a pound coin and peel the lemon.
- Feed the persimmon through first, then the orange, then the ginger. Persimmon pulp is thick and slow, so push the orange through behind it to flush the last of it out of the machine. Squeeze the lemon into the jug at the end and stir it through.
- Pour into three small glasses and drink while it is cold. It settles into layers after ten minutes or so, so give it a stir if it has been standing.
Blender method
- Cut the calyx off the persimmons and quarter them, peel the oranges down to the flesh, peel the ginger and the lemon. Put all of it into the blender with 100ml of cold water.
- Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds until you cannot see any pieces of flesh. The skin breaks down quickly, but the few hard seeds up near the stem take longer, so give it another 15 seconds if you can still spot them.
- Tip it through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve set over a jug. Persimmon pulp is thick and it will sit in the bag, so squeeze it properly or you will leave a third of the juice behind. Serve over ice if you want it colder.