Last night I was reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair (the one with Dreamgirls on the cover and a really stupid "women aren't funny" article by Christopher Hitchens inside), and I suddenly got a really strong scent of pomegranates. I had no idea where it was coming from until I flipped through the magazine and saw an ad for a pomegranate drink, and it had one of those "lift and smell" flaps that you usually see in cologne ads. Now they're doing it with food and drink. Interesting. Anyway, the smell was overwhelming (in a good way), even when I finished reading the mag and threw it out. I smelled it all last night when I was in bed.

Pomegranates are all the rage now. They're amazingly good for you, they taste good, and there are lots of things you can do with them. The Boston Globe explores the phenomenon.

The San Francisco Chronicle did a taste test of pure pomegranate juices, more and more of which have been finding their way onto shelves and into refrigerators in grocery stores as the antioxidant-rich fruit gains popularity. Their tasting only dealt with the pure juices (not blends) and tasters picked POM Wonderful as their favorite, over brands like L&A, Langers, Frutzzo, Knudsen and Trader Joe's. The brilliant jewel color of the juice was mentioned several times by tasters, but the "blend of sweet and tangy" flavor won over 4/5 of the panelists.

Pomegranate juice, particularly POM, isn't cheap and sells for around $3.99 for 16-ounces. While it won against other pomegranate juices, is it really worth buying over other kinds of juice from a taste perspective?

I liked the blueberry-pomegranate blend more than the pure pomegranate juice, myself, and I still think that I'd much rather eat some actual pomegranate than drink either of the beverages.