Reintroducing Aronia

Entrepreneurial agriculturalists the world-round continually scramble to find the next superfruit sensation, and new fruits are put forth for consideration on a regular basis. One that I’ve been hearing more about of late is chokeberries (Aronia spp.), more often these days just called aronia berries since chokeberries has a rather unappealing ring to it (so called due to the unpalatable nature of the berries if simply eaten off the bush…).

Those in the natural colorant side of the food world know of aronia for its blue-black hue thanks to high levels of anthocyanins and other phenolic substances—which also means high antioxidants, thereby kicking aronia into superfruit status. It also contributes vitamin C, to boot.

Although aronia is native to North America, it first caught on commercially overseas. But now in the wake of the superfruit revolution, aronia interest seems to be picking up in the Central Midwestern breadbasket where enterprising farmers are increasing plantings. Since the berries are rather astringent (thanks to high tannins) for many people, the trick is to find ways to use the fruit  in combination with other ingredients, such as this aronia-chipotle glaze I ran across—or maybe some aronia wine.

A farm in Iowa is even hosting an aronia festival soon at its facility—the “largest and oldest U.S. aronia plantation” (as noted in the invite to the event I received courtesy of Eldon Everhart, Ph.D., who also wrote a nice primer on the plants and fruit).