CHOKEBERRIES (Aronia) - A North American Fruit That is Popular in Europe - Weird Fruit Explorer 

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This dude deserves all the sponsorships after putting on a show like that!

Aronia is very popular in Poland (most of the products you showed are Polish brands). I remember having several bushes at my family house in the countryside and making kompot out of them every year.

My family had chokeberry growing in the back yard. My grandmother cried when her new home so far from Poland welcomed her with something so familiar.

I grew up in Sweden with a lot of people having them in their gardens as bushes on the property lines, but no one seemed to eat or use them for much else than that. Then it became trendy some years ago as a "superberry" and very expensive juice could be found in some stores.

I was weirded outb by the jacket skit the first time but then i remember your other job is a circus performer

In Poland aronia is very often added into different “mixed fruit” juices, teas and jams. It’s common, but rarely on its’ own, mostly because of the tartness. At the same time it gives products beautiful color, and also enriches them in vitamins and antioxidants. It’s a very healthy little fruit :)

I used to est these as a kid as they grew in my grandparents backyard. Everyone else hated them raw but I loved them. I loved shoving a handful into my mouth. I wouldn’t say they are particularly common in Europe. You can find chokeberry flavored products in some countries, like Poland, but 99.9% of Europeans have never had this fruit fresh. Sadly a lot of the processed chokeberry products contain only a small amount of chokeberries. You can buy real chokeberry syrups and jams online and from more traditional retailers, but they can be pricey and not really worth it, as there are myriad far better berries.

The straitjacket makes me imagine what a "Weird Explorer But Out of Context" video would be like.

Now THAT is the best way to have your audience watch your sponsor bit! I enjoyed it the first time and anytime is highly entertaining! Great content as usual, I’d not expect any less. Thank you! I wish good health, happiness and all the best to you and yours!

Really excited for this. I'm always super curious about native North American edible plants and fruit especially, so this is awesome.

The whole chokecherry vs chokeberry thing is one of the easiest examples of common names for plants being quite confusing. Aronia Melanocarpa works for me ;)

I've been growing Aronia here in Anchorage, AK for several years. Russians know it as "black mountain ash." European mountain ash grows all over the city, but even after a deep freeze, their berries are less than delightful. I Have a "red mountain ash" that a Russian botanist created by hybridizing the European mountain ash with aronia. Frankly, aronia is better by far - and it survives our Zone-3-pushing-2 conditions just fine. Jam made from 1-1 sugar and berries is delicious. What I don't understand is why so many people continue to plant cotoneaster. The two plants look similar, ariona has bigger leaves, more and prettier flowers, and prettier berries, but the biggest advantage is that you can actually eat the berries. I ripped out two perfectly healthy cotoneasters to put in some more aronia - big fan!

Combined with apples in a steam juicer you get ambrosia of the gods.

We’ve grown these for years. Make a simple syrup from it and it becomes the only way to drink gin.

In the Netherlands we call it “Appelbes” which means Apple berry. This makes sense now that I know that the two are related. Great video, Thanks.

My parents make sweet aronia liqueur every year as soon as fresh aronia fruits are available, and it's honestly the best alcohol I've ever had.

I love me some really herbal and bitter berries, just comes with being a Finn and having grown gathering berries in the forest I guess. Those juices I could drink by themselves for days, and as somewhat of a connoisseur they really do taste better if you really sip and savour them.

The editing, the music, the everything!! Just ah you did a really good job with this video!

I love that this is something you, the Weird Fruit Guy, never tried before, while it's something so normal to me... Which obviously makes sense, I live where these are common but it's a weird feeling I never thought I'd experience.

It is worth noting that the ‘European chokeberry cultivars ’ are different than native American - the fruits are bigger, foliage have different colour in the autumn etc. They were probably hybridised by Michurin in the early twenties of XX century. Native varieties include black and red chokeberries with smaller and less sweet fruits.

Your personality really shines in this video. i found it hilarious and very enjoyable

I'm Polish (but living abroad in Ireland). Love aronia but can never get it fresh in Ireland, so I always need to resort to aronia products. Glad to see it talked about, never knew it was originally North American!

Gods, finally! it about killed me when you did the last straight jacket ad and didn’t get out of it at the end, lol.

Yes, another video to make my day. Never stop! You've turned me into a huge fruit nerd...

What was great about this episode? Everything!!! Even the sponsor info was fun :) That chokeberry curd looked yummy! Thanks for sharing :)

When you talked about missing the jam, I thought you were gonna make jam. Then, you performed some kind of alchemy and turned it into something that I now have to try with every kind of fruit. Curd. Mind blown. 🤯

Thanks for the review on chokeberry. I want to grow some now :)

Aronija is a very popular fruit in Latvia. We ourselves have 2 bushes and it makes the tastiest syrup ever.

I live in Poland. Aronia is as popular as orange or grape. But actually we don't have raw fruit available at supermarket but all kinds of aronia flavour stuff, jams, syrups, tea (which is actually very tasty, kinda like cranberry and blueberry combined, ofc taste depends on the brand) and obviously people have aronia trees and make all kinds of alcohol drinks, wine, vodka, nalewka (fruits plus sugar and spirytus- pure alcohol and then it's left to ferment). My uncle just made amazing nalewka from aronia and it's so tasteful, sweet and stringy consistency of thick syrup.

Another wonderful video ❣️

Perfect timing. I just picked a couple of cups of chokeberries today, and was trying to decide what to do with them. I think I will try Aronia Curd.

i have 2 bushes producing aronia currently and i would say your spot on describing them, thinking of adding them to the wine i'am making

Great video!

Always love your videos but that ad was next level, kudos!

I have been looking for Aronia berry juice for a LONG TIME! Had it in my town for about 10 months. Miss it! THANK YOU FOR THIS! Also best Wednesday in a long time!

Great episode

I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a commercial as much as the one embedded in this video.

Adds are fun with your day job included in them

Aronia bushes have very vibrant deep red leaves at fall, really beautiful

Thank you for this video ! 🤗💐

In Udmurtia region of Russia we like to make juice with aronia and apple combined. Work really well together - apple makes it sweeter and milder, not as astringent and aronia gives it more interesting, deep berry taste and beautiful color

I've planted a chokeberry this autumn. I need many many berries. My favorite method of brewing this tisane is with Sideritis. The flavors are out of this world.

I thought straight jacket Wednesday was funny the 1st time, and I still chuckled even though I knew what was coming. Well done Sir

This episode is now one of my top favorites XD

Your videos have really evolved now

loved this cooking show

My grandmother used to make Chokecherry jam all the time, I loved it.

Awesome video as always! If I ever happen to find these I’ll be sure to plan on making jam or curd rather than eating them raw.

lol, i just saw your Chokecherry video and this got uploaded

Cool! I am north of Dallas and planted 4 of these last year. They seem to be doing well, so far.

Just realized that these are the berry bushes growing in my backyard. The squirrels always eat them & i never thought to. Def gonna pick them myself this fall. Thanks.

Best ad ever, you showman

Loving the Hammond jam in this.

I’m growing these in my yard in PA. I’ve seen them around different cities as landscaping bushes. Also if you freeze them it will cut down on some of the astringency.

I might buy a plant and grow it in my garden, sounds like a good idea.

i never noticed the subtle background music. very nice

I Have these growing everywhere by where I live but I never thought anyone actually ate them

I grow them, and they are pretty easy plant to grow honestly. They are high in polyphenols, higher than Elderberries, which are so commonly used for the same reason. The difference is, I can use Aronia fresh, like in a shake, yogurt, or something like that.

Dude the tunes in this video are sicks that new Orleans organ jam

This is super high in antioxidants. We make an aronia wine up here in North Dakota that is quite popular. It does have an earthy flavor.

I grow Aronia in my yard and have tried Aronia juice and syrup, as well as the fresh fruit in my yard. I have to say that I can eat a lot of fruit that others would probably hate, but cannot get past the metallic taste that Aronia leaves in my mouth. The syrup I bought was sweet, but had that taste also and wasn't very flavorful (even adding Aronia with other fruits in blended drink helped make it more palatable, but I still could taste the metallic flavor). So this past season I just left the Aronia fruit on my plant and didn't even bother to pick it. I always enjoy your videos and appreciate your reviews and opinions on different varieties of fruit.

Nice! I feel inspired to go out and pick some now and cook up something nice. :^) They are planted everywhere here in Europe.

Good pallet that you said it tastes like black cherries. I've seen Aronia used to enhance the cherry flavor in commercial cheery syrup.

"Wait I have an idea... " is now just a thing.

There's a ton of these bushes in the road median near the mall. I was going to pick them but mostly good for jam.

They are really REALLY popular! Here in The Balkans we use them to make jam and liquor. I'm not the biggest fan (when eating them raw) coz it's sourish and bitter, but sometimes a sweeter one does come! The jam if phenomenal, recommend it to everyone!

Costco used to carry gallon jugs of Aronia berry juice, and I LOVED IT sooo much. It stopped being sold around 20 years ago, but I still remember the flavor, and miss it. I occasionally see it in small jugs in organic sections, but i'm not interested in a higher markup to likely be disappointed. I would agree good Aronia berry juice is strong, not too sweet, and similar to cranberry in both flavor and astringency. After seeing this video, I'm going to have to find some more juice, even if I have to make it myself. Thanks for the video omg there's tea?! I have to try it

Best Sponsorship clip ever

I have a couple of cups of Aronia in fridge for about a month and can not finish them, hard to eat more the 5 berries:) Thanks for so elaborated review!

Jared, what a wonderful weirdo you are! Such thanks coming at you! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

You crack me up! 😅 I wish you lived closer, I'd take you for a chat, some jam on toast and a cup o tea 🤗

I got some plants on clearance once at Tractor Supply but they were in rough shape and didn't make it. I haven't seen them anywhere since.

Thanks for the video. At my home in northern Michigan, Chokeberry grows along the shoreline, and I enjoy a bountiful harvest in late September. I toss the berries on breakfast cereal and in my yogurt. To me, the berries have a slight blueberry taste, although they taste "dryer", if that makes any sense. Good stuff!

ahh i see now why the chokecherry ep was pulled from the vault the other day 😆

Trying to grow my own Aronia bush as we speak. Lovely fruit. Closely related to the quince.

I ate this this morning . Somehow we wound up with quite a bit in the fridge from the market.. Disagree with the bitterness part, ive not found them bitter at all, but a lot more sour and astringent..

Wish I would have known you wanted to try this, I harvested a gallon freezer bag worth in August. City parks in Eastern Montana have them, but the majority of the "choke" fruits here are millions of chokecherry plants.

When I heard the description of the taste and then the comparison to wine my brain went right to choke berry syrup for like cocktails or sodas

I pick and eat these in random places where I find them growing as an ornamental plant. One time I did it close to a mall, and somebody must have seen me and grown concerned that I was trying to poison myself (which I obviously wasn't), because the next time I walked by, the plants weren't there anymore. The landscaping was mostly the same, but there were no more aronia bushes. I knew what they were right away, but I used a plant identifier app called Picture This to make sure. It works over 90% of the time, and it's actually very fun to use. I don't know if they were dwarf bushes, but they were smaller than usual. The berries were still astringent.

Sounds like it would pair well in savory dishes where you would traditionally add cranberries or cherries.

So now I know how to get out of a straight jacket...all it takes is damn near dislocating a shoulder. There is a Balkan grocery store not far from me, so I may have to go and look for some of these products. Thanks for the tip.

I used to pluck these from the bushes along our tree line and mix them in my leaves and mud as 'potions' as a small kid

so you made chokeberry hollandaise sauce. Looks amazing. Edit: Oh that's a curd. Looks amazing.

I literally googled about these yesterday after seeing them around where I live

We really love making aronia and apple juice here in Poland. It's super tasty too.

I bought a tree off of ebay and after the transaction went through one of these popped up as an "item you might be interested in" and now I'm on RU-vid and this video gets recommended to me

I have two big aronia bushes in my garden, and they usually produce a ton of berries when they do. I haven't figured out what's the best thing to make out of them yet, due to their astringent taste. The aronia-curd looks like a good thing to try out👍

Where I live in Germany it is becoming increasingly popular as low hedging along roadsides. Throughout late summer and into winter these shrubs are laden with black fruit which usually doesn't get picked and just falls to the ground after a few months. I don't really know why it's becoming popular as roadside plantings but I guess for people interested in tasting them it's now easy to find some choke cherry fruit.

A few decades ago, my family used to buy Aronia berry juice. The vitamin C content was 210% DV. Just one glass was enough to cause sour stomach.

It's interesting how you said it's like wine without it being wine. I had never heard of it until a few minutes ago, when I discovered it for sale. It's color drew me in. I wondered if it would make a good wine. Based on your description of its complexity, I'm thinking yes. I'm going to try it for wine making.

aronia is just used as a bush where I live so there's a ton of them and it's pretty rare to eat them. still I ate them as a kid :)

Please make a video on the strange South East Asian pumpkin called Trichosanthes Pilosa (also known as Red Ball Snake Fruit / Bali Melon etc). It has the grossest dark green coloured sappy seeds, encased by a redish orange coloured shell.

I think we might have this growing out in front of my work? I know don’t eat strange things but also that would be wild

We have them a lot in Serbia also, I have them in my back yard right hahah! They say theyre really healthy to eat raw but they taste really strong and not sweet- I make jam out of them :b

I bought a jar of Chokeberry jam from an Apple grower in Western North Carolina. It's delicious.

Have you tried Muntingia? Im trying to search it from your video

My dwarf tamarillo (cyphomandra abutiloides) are just fruiting before the frost. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to send you some. They taste way different from tamarillos and the leaves smell kinda like asphalt.

Where I live we have choke cherries and choke berries, we use the names interchangeably here mostly because they are both edible so it doesn't matter much.

Maybe I'll try the juice. Thanks!