The Adventures of Krystal Kid: The last of the Loganberry

Friday, February 02, 2007

The last of the Loganberry

Well it is one last post about that tasty yet elusive Buffalo beverage called Loganberry. If you've been around here for a little while you followed me thru my misadventures and attempts to find a regular supply of Aunt Rosie's Loganberry. You can browse some of the posts here.
When we left off last, I was heartbroken when I heard that Aunt Rosie's had, in fact, stopped selling their beverage syrup to the general public. You can still get it packaged for soda fountains, but sadly I don't have a soda fountain at home. I had found, perhaps, an inside line on Cronfelts, who also makes Loganberry, and claims to be the "Original" Loganberry.
While trying to track down leads and in fact speaking to someone at Vitality Foodservice who makes Cronfelt's I decided it was time to take my fate in my own hands. I'm a smart guy. I'm not too bad in the kitchen. I'm crazy enough to try outlandish ideas. And I had done some research.
Loganberries are a cross of blackberries and raspberries. Sadly they are also very hard to find in their natural or frozen state here in Georgia. However, we do have fairly easy access to fresh raspberries and blackberries:

Thanks to my countless hours watching Food Network, I know where to go next. Add in a cup of simple syrup (sugar water) and blammo!

The resulting mixtures was the right color but rather thick. So it was time to strain out the seeds.

What was left was absolutely the right color and had the right flavor, but it was not nearly sweet or tart enough and was certainly too thick. So the next step was to add water.

I was on to something, but still not sweet or tart enough. I knew how to fix the sweet side but tart? I did a little research and found many fruity drinks use acetic acid to add tart. A bit more research led me to: vinegar. No way would I add vinegar to my new creation.
So I made a quick call to Amy, my sister in law, who is a real chef (diploma on the wall, jacket and hat in the closet, and supersharp knives at the ready.) We kicked some ideas around. She suggested perhaps increasing the raspberry content (the tarter of the two berries). I also thought perhaps adding in some cranberries. They're super tart and shouldn't offset the flavor too much. Amy suggested perhaps a cranberry juice concentrate. With that it was off to the store.
I started with Ocean Spray since it was like 27% juice. It helped but just didn't have enough zing to it. I had almost given up hope when I remember Amy saying maybe a natural foods place. I zipped over to the health foods aisle of my grocery store and there it was:

Yes you read the label right: pure cranberry juice, not from concentrate. It says that and "100% pure cranberry juice" like 8 times on the label. Let me assure you this stuff is not meant to be swallowed as-is. This stuff will probably remove paint, mildew, and any dental work you might have. BUt it did the trick. I had finally made my own version of Loganberry. And since Aunt Rosie had been the one to let me down, I dubbed this: Uncle Jason's Loganberry. (I really am an uncle, so it's not really a joke).
While I was wrapped up in my excitement, though, my Cronfelt's connection came through:

So now I don't have any real need for Uncle Jason's Loganberry. But I may continue to tinker with the recipe later on. I think perhaps I'll try using frozen berries instead of fresh and see if that makes a difference.
I did notice one thing though that made me laugh a bit:

I know it's hard to read but it says that Cronfelt's contains 0% juice. Maybe that was my problem all along, trying to actually put berries into loganberry. For the record, Aunt Rosie's did use actual loganberries. But aunt Rosie is dead to me now. Long live Cronfelts out of Barrie, Ontario, Canada (and yet somehow owned by a company from Tamp Florida?)
Oh my goodness it's still sooo good! Krystal Lovers get more in the sack!.