Pitaya Plus – Dragonfruit In A Bottle!

Tags

Dragonfruit, Fruit, Juice, Pitaya Plus, Review

Remember how I was saying I’d pay outrageous amounts to have dragonfruit again? Turns out I don’t have to!

I was kindly provided with promotional samples by Pitaya Plus, a brand-new company offering dragonfruit Super Juice with a bit of coconut water and other dragonfruit products to the American market.

(Image from Pitaya Plus website)

Pitaya Plus has a solar-powered facility in Nicaragua, where red-fleshed dragonfruit are grown and harvested for them by local single mothers from poverty-stricken communities in an effort to support these families. The fruit are then directly shipped to Pitaya Plus’ Californian headquarters and made into delicious juice.

The juice is all-natural, contains zero added sugar, 25% of your daily recommended fiber, plenty of antioxidants and more than your daily need of Vitamin D3, all courtesy of the lovely dragonfruit. It also contains coconut water, and comes labelled with a warning: “Don’t drink our juice if you are looking for that sugar tooth feeling that you get from every other juice in existence. Prepare yourself for a juice that will taste so refreshing and different, you will actually want to drink more of it!” Naturally, I couldn’t wait to crack a bottle open and see whether I would really be able to re-experience that dragonfruit flavor I’ve been craving.

First thoughts: Yep, definitely dragonfruit! Rejoice! The coconut flavor is definitely detectable, and I’m not sure I need it in there, but then I’m usually a fruit flavor purist and eat my fruit salads in groups of fruit rather than mixed. The warning also definitely holds true when it comes to sweetness – it’s pleasantly tart, or, as my wife put it, it “tastes like juice from a fruit, not juice from a bottle.”

Pitaya Plus juice is available online, or at Whole Foods and some select health stores in California.

(Image from Pitaya Plus website)

Bottom line? I love the flavor, it’s as close as I can get here to a fresh dragonfruit. (I am extremely excited to try out their dried fruit and smoothie packs, once those become available). The nutritional stats are stellar at 70kcal per 10.5oz bottle, and clearly it’s healthy juice for you! On the down side, $2.50 for a (small) bottle is pricey, but many comparable products in terms of health (and especially at Whole Foods), are. I’d probably leave out the coconut water component, but even with it, I love it. I’d say definitely, definitely give it a try, you won’t regret it! 4.5/5 from me.

Disclaimer: Pitaya Plus Super Juice was kindly provided by Pitaya Plus, LLC. This blog receives no payment or other compensation for reviews of products or services.

Behold the Mighty Dragonfruit!

Tags

China, Chinese, Dragonfruit, Food, Fruit

I challenged myself to try to eat one new fruit that I can’t easily find in the States and that I had probably never had before.
Dragonfruit, or huo long guo (literally fire dragon fruit), are actually the fruit of a cactus, Hylocereus, and very popular all across Asia. They come with red or white flesh, and you find them everywhere you look in China. They are bold and bright pink, and quite dragonesque looking:

Interestingly, the inside looks nothing like the outside. The closest I can think to compare the consistency of the flesh to is kiwi, but the flavor is quite different. The white flesh is subtly sweet, while the seeds are crunchy and a bit nutty, I’d say. I just spooned it out of the skin, but some people cut slices and eat it melon-style. One dragon fruit contains about 60kcal, is high in Vitamin C and fiber, and also contains a bunch of other minerals and vitamins.

Let me tell you, I wish there were any way at all for me to find them here. I’d pay outrageous amounts to have one again! (Scratch that! Look at what I found!) Dragonfruit are very refreshing and not at all overwhelmingly sweet, so they work great on the often muggy, hot summer days of Beijing.

What are some of the best (or weirdest) foods you’ve discovered recently?