Today we’ll cover how to make fresh noni juice from ripe fruit.

Noni juice has been credited with a vast array of benefits, including reducing pain, preventing cancer, alleviating diabetes, helping with memory and scaring away people who can’t stand the smell. In my latest video, I demonstrate how to make fresh noni juice:

Juicing noni fruit isn’t particularly easy as the pulp holds in the juice, so I add some water to the blender and blend up noni fruit, then push the fruit pulp through a sieve. This is basically Mary Wikison’s method, which you can read about here. Unlike her, I don’t add grape juice. I like my noni straight.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Let Noni Fruit Ripen on the Counter

Noni are white when ripe, but will turn a translucent soft gray-white when they’re ripe. They’re soft and the skin breaks easily at this phase, so if you want to wash them, wash them before they ripen. I pick white noni off the tree and bring them home.

I admit to not washing all the noni in my video thoroughly before they ripened. It’s not disgusting, it’s, uh, probiotic!

Step 2: Blend Up Your Noni Fruit

Noni fruit is quite soft. Stick a few of them in the blender with some water and whizz ’em around. They’ll turn to pulp rapidly while the seeds stay mostly intact.

Step 3: Press Through a Sieve

This takes a little time but it gets the seeds and tougher pulp out.

Thoughts on Making Noni Juice

You get a thick noni juice this way, so it’s not good for you pulp-free aficionados, but it’s good juice. Locally, though, people often stick multiple noni fruit in a jar, then let them disintegrate and ferment into a brown juice over a couple of months, then pour that off. One of these days I’ll try it, but whoa… that’s pretty intense for an American expat.

Making fresh noni juice only takes a few minutes for a small amount. I made over a gallon of fresh noni juice the evening I filmed this video and it took me about an hour. Using a juicer would probably work but I don’t have one. My pastor juices noni by letting the fruit turn to mush on the counter, then pressing out the juice with a fork. That’s a little scarier, though noni seems to have a strange preservative effect which keeps it from spoiling like some fruit do. Even fruit flies don’t like eating noni. I have gotten used to the taste and like it. Wikipedia claims it’s bitter but it isn’t – not really. The taste of noni is slightly sweet and cheesy – like a strong cheese – with black pepper undertones.

Drinking noni juice is a unique experience but not a terrible one. I find it quite drinkable, though your mileage may vary. After you drink noni juice you feel healthy – it makes your whole body tingle. I’ve been drinking noni juice every day for the last couple of weeks and I haven’t died yet.