Trail Running Blog

Product Review: POM Wonderful, They Really Are

I was sent an awesome care package from POM Wonderful to try out and review some (a lot actually) of their POM products. I’ve actually never tried anything from POM before, probably because it’s more of a luxury item and a little too expensive for me, even though I have always loved pomegrantes. But who is going to give up the chance for complementary POM products, so here goes. Before I get into the review, here is an interesting quote I found from their website. “In China, a picture of a ripe, open pomegranate is a popular wedding present, expressing the wish ‘May you have as many children as there are seeds!’”

“POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice is a little bit sweet, a little bit tart and a whole lotta healthy.” I think this is the most well known POM product that I know of, I actually thought this was the only thing that they made. I have always been a fan of pomegranates ever since I was a kid, definitely more than anyone else that I knew. It was a pain, however, to have to pick each individual kernel to enjoy that wonderful pomegranate juice. Sometimes, if I was really patient, I would pick them all into a bowl and eat them with a spoon! You’d think that when they came out with this juice, I would have been the first to get a bottle. I suppose there was also that sense of accomplishment when eating something that you ‘worked’ to earn that you don’t get when you drink it straight from the bottle. Anyways, when I first tried the pomegranate juice, I noticed that it was a lot stronger than I had remembered it to be. There was this kick right at the end of each sip. I suppose drinking it in such a concentrated form is a lot different than eating a couple of kernels at a time, which is probably just a few sips in comparison. I think this taste is something that needs to get used to, like more than one bottle.

Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea

Drinking the Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea compared to the Pomegranate Juice was completely different. The flavor was not nearly as strong as the pomegranate juice and the very first taste that you get when drinking this is the Lychee, which I am also a huge fan of. I hardly tasted any pomegranate which, I suppose, is a good and bad thing. Either way, this drink is highly recommended because of the health benefits of drinking: pomegranate, lychee and green tea!

POMx Iced Coffee: Café au Lait & Chocolate Flavors

A couple of things surprised me before I even took a sip of these drinks: POM Wonderful made coffee drinks and they were in little grenade shaped containers! This drink actually contains pomegranate, POMx: POM Wonderful Pomegranate Antioxidant Extract – patent pending. This reminds me of a scene from friends when Rachel ruins the trifle by putting meat (among other things) into the recipe. Here is Joey’s response after eating it: “What’s not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Beef, GOOD!” From then on, whenever I would see two random ingredients that I like, I would think to myself, or out loud, ‘since they both taste good separately, they must be good together!’ Of course, that’s not always true. However, I have to admit mixing the POMx with coffee does seem to work very well. It must be said that when I tried both coffee drinks, I did not taste any hint of pomegranate in it, even though it clearly states that there is in the ingredients. They must put a very small amount in it then because all I tasted was coffee goodness. I really enjoyed both flavors equally, but I would have to give the regular coffee flavor a slight edge since the chocolate one was a little thicker than I’d like.

POMx Bars

These POMx Bars are just more products that I did not know POM sold. The product description tells it all, “Unwrap the power of antioxidants. Made with real fruit and nuts, this all-natural bar is wrapped in dark chocolate. Plus, it’s powered by POMx, an ultra-potent natural antioxidant.” The POMx bars come in two flavors: pomegranate and peanut butter. I have had peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner and as a random snack before, so guess which bar I liked more? The peanut butter flavored POMx bar was pretty good, I could barely tell that there was any pomegranate in it, but of course, the ingredients said there was. The pomegranate flavor wasn’t bad, but by comparison, I enjoyed the peanut butter more, hands down. What was also cool about these bars was that they were covered in dark chocolate, which I am not a fan of, despite the fact that it’s better for you than regular chocolate. These are really nice snacks to just have whenever, or before or after a run. Best of all, they’re healthy!

POMx Pill & POMx Shots

If you need a quick and easy pick me up, you should definitely consider a POMx Pill or POMx Shot. These two are natural pomegranate polyphenol and antioxidant supplements, respectively. Whenever I think of supplements, I think of getting a boost at Jamba Juice, you don’t really taste it (unless you get the protein powder one) and it’s supposed to work its magic behind the scenes. The POMx Pill has the antioxidant power of an 8oz glass of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice, so if you are like me the first time I had the juice and can’t take the strong flavor, you can swallow one of these pills and you’ll be good to go. The POMx Shot is not like one of those 8 hour energy shots that you see floating around convenience stores these days. Like I said earlier, it’s a super-concentrated 1300mg punch of POMx, which I’m sure is more than enough for your daily intake. These two products are good for someone who needs a quick pick-me-up but rather not have to down a full bottle of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

POM Wonderful

I have to thank the people of POM Wonderful for sending all of these cool POM products. If I ever see any of these products on sale, I will definitely giving them a second go, if not, try some of the other flavors of POM I did not get to try out yet. The ones I got were shipped with such care, take a look at the packaging below. They were shipped very fast with what looked like ice packs to keep them cold and packaged very securely. Thanks again POM Wonderful!

Who wouldn’t want to open a package full of these wonderful POM products?!

First image courtesy of POM Wonderful

Where to Buy