Crew Review: Monin Natural Fruit Purees

In the halcyon days of our much-storied youth, we spent a cool 8 months slinging fresh juice from behind the mighty wheatgrass wall of a juice joint. Strawberry lemonades, mango-banana smoothies and peach coolers were all on the menu -- three drinks you can now very easily create at home using Monin's Natural Fruit Purees. These luscious little numbers are very concentrated and highly potent; the strawberry almost seems like a smoothed jam and the banana reminds us of slipping a fresh one off of a Costa Rican tree. We've tossed these into smoothies and mocha shakes and look forward to experimenting with them in desserts and cooking. Monin says these are shelf-stable, but we're always a little bit terrified of products that claim that, so we've been keeping our open bottles in the fridge. It definitely impacts their consistency, making them a bit thicker to pour, which can be good or bad depending on your application. We're imagining combining the strawberry with our Meyer lemon-infused vodka for a delicious summer cocktail treat! Care to join us?