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Waiting for pears to reach that perfect state of ripeness can sometimes be a challenge. Eat them a day too late and they’re squidgy and over-ripe in patches. Eat them one day too early and you’ll be disappointed by spots of un-ripe crunch. ‘That perfect point of ripeness will depend on how you like your pear to be, but in my book, it should be almost the texture of sorbet,’ says Nigel Slater. But then, he warns, ‘pears for juicing need to have a bit of crunch.’

Straight Pear Juice

‘Whether you blitz Comice, Williams or Conference, you will get a glass of delicately flavoured and rather beautiful juice that is the very essence of pear,’ continues Slater. ‘It will taste even more pear-like than a pear.’

He suggests that as sublime as pear juice is on its own, its deep flavour goes well with the leafy bitterness of watercress and spinach. Slater also recommends mixing pear juice with berries as ‘it produces a drink almost Edwardian in its elegance.’

Blueberry Pear Juice

Slater’s pear and blueberry juice recipe uses 200 grams of blueberries and two just ripe sliced pears and makes up one medium glass of juice. He suggests that this delicate drink would be quite comfortable served in a wine glass due to its pale rose colour.

Wash the fruit, place the blueberries in a juicer with the pears and blitz. The blueberry pear juice should be drunk as soon as possible as it discolours ‑ if you can’t drink it immediately, add some lemon juice or lime juice.

Lemon Mint Pear Juice

For a small glass of refreshing lemon, mint and pear juice, you will need three just ripe large pears, half a lemon and about eight mint leaves.

Wash the fruit and cut the pears to remove the pips and stalks. Squeeze the lemon juice out of the lemon, add the sliced pears and mint leaves and blitz with a blender. Once again, drink it as soon as you can.

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