You will not Choke on Chokeberry (Aronia spp.)

Poor, misunderstood aronia, saddled with a common name like chokeberry. How did such a useful fruit get such a terrible name? My best guess is that someone picked an underripe aronia berry expecting it to taste like a blueberry. Surprise! Aronia fruit is super tart and chock full of antioxidents. Sweet? No, but tasty and useful. So let’s call it aronia instead of chokeberry. Deal?

Chokeberries are medium-sized shrubs that are especially easy to spot in fall, when their foliage turns a vibrant red and their fruit ripens to either purple-black (Aronia melanocarpa) or red (A. alnifolia). Chokeberries are juiciest and tastiest when they first ripen, (late summer – early fall) so don’t wait to harvest. 

Raw aronia berries will definitely make you pucker up. Juicing the fruit removes the sharpest edge of sourness and provides a juice that can be drunk plain or sweetened. If you don’t have a juicer, put the berries in a large pot and add just enough water to cover the fruit. You can mash them raw, which produces a fresher tasting juice but takes more elbow grease. Or, bring the fruit and water to a boil to soften the fruit, then mash. Strain the juice through a jelly bag and taste, then sweeten, if necessary. (If this all sounds like too much work you can sneak off to Trader Joes and buy yourself a bottle of aronia juice…I won’t tell.)

Ah, but chokeberry juice is good for more than just drinking. The tartness of the berry stands up to sugar, and its vibrant color makes it gorgeous in sorbets or ice cream. It’s naturally high in pectin and makes a beautiful, richly colored, tart jelly. Try adding aronia syrup to white wine or Prosecco for a festive aperitif. And if you’ve got a bumper crop, why not make a gallon of chokeberry wine? The natural tannins in the fruit make it an excellent choice for a wild brew.

If you’d like to use the whole fruit, consider combining aronia berries with milder fruits like raspberries, peaches, and nectarines in a late summer pie. Or make an aronia pavlova to impress your friends. This is a plant that deserves more appreciation: it’s lovely in the landscape, and its fruit is tasty at the table.