I have had rosemary growing in a pot by the back door for years and, until recently, the only thing it ever went into was a roast. Then I tried it in a juice and realised what I had been missing. You need very little of it. Three sprigs of fresh rosemary juiced with a couple of sweet apples and a lemon gives you a glass that smells like the herb bed and tastes like a sharp green apple drink with something piney running underneath. It is not for everyone, and if you do not like the smell of rosemary you will not like it in a glass either. If you do, it is the most interesting thing I have put through the juicer this year.
Why these ingredients work
Rosemary has been tied to memory since long before anyone tested it. Greek students wore it in garlands during exams and Shakespeare put it in Ophelia’s hands for remembrance. Some of that reputation has been looked at properly. The best known work is on rosemary aroma: Moss and Oliver’s 2012 study in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology found that people who had been in a room scented with rosemary oil did better on some memory tasks, and the more of the compound 1,8-cineole they had absorbed into their blood, the better they performed. A later trial from the same group, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2018, looked at drinking rosemary water rather than smelling it and reported modest improvements on some memory tasks, along with changes in blood flow to the brain. That trial was small and it ran with a commercial rosemary drink, so take it as interesting rather than settled. The wider human evidence on rosemary and memory is thin, and most of the animal work is a long way from proving anything for a person drinking a glass of juice.
What is not in question is the rest of it. Rosemary is genuinely rich in rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid, the plant compounds behind its antioxidant reputation, and it has been used as a digestive herb in European cooking for centuries. The apples and the lemon are there for the taste and the vitamin C. Apple juice on its own is sweet and a bit one dimensional, which is exactly why the lemon earns its place here. My honest position is this: make it because it is a genuinely good drink and a pleasant way to get some herb polyphenols in, not because it is going to repair your memory.
FAQ
Does rosemary juice actually help your memory?
The memory association is centuries old, and the strongest human evidence is for inhaling rosemary aroma rather than drinking it. One small trial did find that drinking a rosemary extract drink improved performance on some memory tasks, but nobody has tested this particular juice, and one trial is not proof of much. The herbs and the apple bring real polyphenols and vitamin C, and that is a solid reason to drink it. A better memory is not something I would promise you.
How much rosemary should I use?
Two to three sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves only. Fresh matters here, dried rosemary tastes dusty in a glass. More than three sprigs and it stops tasting like a drink and starts tasting like a mouthful of pine. In normal food amounts rosemary is fine for most people, but if you are pregnant or you take warfarin or another blood thinner, keep to cooking sized amounts and have a word with your GP before you make a habit of it.
Can I make it without a juicer?
Yes. Blend the rosemary leaves, the chopped apples, the peeled lemon and the ginger with 150 ml of cold water for about a minute, then squeeze the lot through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve. Rosemary needles are tough, so do not rush the straining. The point is the clear juice, not the puree.
More brain recipes: see the full Brain collection.
Apple, Lemon and Rosemary Juice
Equipment
- Nut milk bag
Ingredients
- 2 sweet apples Braeburn or Gala, roughly 300 g, cored and cut to fit your juicer
- 1 lemon unwaxed, peeled, as much of the white pith taken off as you can
- 3 fresh rosemary sprigs leaves only, roughly 3 g
- 1 thumb of fresh ginger about 5 g, peeled. Optional, but it rounds the rosemary off nicely
Instructions
Juicer method
- Strip the rosemary leaves off the woody stems and throw the stems away. You want the needles only, about a tablespoon of them.
- Quarter the apples and peel the lemon, taking off as much of the white pith as you can.
- Feed the rosemary and the ginger through the juicer first, then the apples, then the lemon. Putting the apple through behind the herbs helps carry the rosemary oils out with the juice.
- Stir it, pour it into two glasses and drink it fresh. It keeps about 24 hours in a sealed bottle in the fridge, though the rosemary gets bolder the longer it stands.
Blender method
- Strip the rosemary leaves off the stems, chop the apples roughly, and peel the lemon and the ginger.
- Blend everything with 150 ml cold water for about 60 seconds until it is completely smooth.
- Tip the lot into a nut milk bag or a fine sieve set over a jug and squeeze the liquid through. Rosemary needles are tough so do not skip this step, the point is the clear juice, not the puree.
- Serve as is, or over ice if you want it cold.