homage to the pom

I distinctly remember my first onslaught of exposure to pomegranates as a child. When my mother placed one of the fire-engine red fruits with a top that resembled a royal crown in front of me, i couldn't believe she was allowing me the honor of indulging in what was, at the time, an unaffordable food in our household. And when she cut it open, revealing the tightly-packed arils inside like a treasure trove of sparkling rubies, my eyes unfurled and expanded like Morning Glory at dawn. It was love at first sight.

Nothing compares to the coveted pomegranate; specifically, the process of consuming one. As a child, i found great amusement in digging into the clusters of arils with my spoon, squirting its crimson juice in every direction and sending my mother into a tizzy because it stains. Then i found even greater joy in sweeping those heaping spoonfuls of fat jewels into my mouth and feeling their smooth but firm, bubbly texture on my tongue before chomping down in a moment of sudden ecstasy. The juice bombs exploded, power-washing the insides of my cheeks. I ground the seeds with my teeth and let the cool, refreshing liquid run across my tongue. The entire experience was simply rapturous.

Approximately 10 years later...

Enter POM Wonderful, stage left. My first sighting happened to be in the form of a chilled tea sold in a tall keepsake glass. As a natural sucker for simple packaging (and this one was reusable!), i couldn't resist investigating. When i found out that its ingredients were nothing more than tea, sugar, pomegranate juice, and pomegranate entioxidant extract, i was ecstatic. But the icing on the cake, of course, was the taste test i gave it that very day. All-natural and delicious? Amazing.

I went on to discover that POM also makes straight up pomegranate juice which, as does the tea, comes in a handful of flavors. They also sell highly concentrated pomegranate pills and, of course, pomegranates! On their website, one can expect to find a listing of all of these products and their nutritional information, plus the history of the pomegranate, pomegranate recipes, ideas for decorating with pomegranates, news articles featuring POM, and access to POM's blog (where they're currently giving away free swag and products just for commenting and posting POM photos and videos...hence the extra motivation for this blog).

Bottom line: POM truly is wonderful. They have proven themselves worthy, advocating the super health benefits of the Great Pomegranate and selling an exceptional product, both with dignity and style.