6 Reasons to Choose BerriHealth's Black Raspberry Powder Instead of Capsules February 19 2016, 0 Comments

Our team at Berrihealth is all about growing the best black raspberries so we can create amazing, authentic products with them. One product we've never made are black raspberry capsules, which are filled with small amounts of black raspberry powder and sold in a variety of health food stores and online. We've outlined plenty of economic and scientific reasons why not on a previous post, but we were curious just what people were getting inside these black raspberry capsules. We decided to crack open black raspberry capsules from three leading companies and take a look at the powder. Quite frankly, the results shocked us:

To have an effective black raspberry powder, you've got to start with a great black raspberry. Here at Berrihealth we have an exceptional partner in Sturm's Berry Farm, a family-run farm that has been harvesting black raspberries for over 70 years!  Each summer, we take these carefully cultivated whole berries, including the seeds, pulp, fiber and skin, to create our premium black raspberry powder.

So how do you know if you are getting the good stuff? Well, a good black raspberry powder should look, smell, and taste like a black raspberry!

Reason Number 1: The color is important.  As you can see above, there is a ton of variation in color between what is inside these 3 capsules and our authentic black raspberry powder. Black raspberries are full of dark-colored pigments called anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants and are one of the key healthy compounds found in the berry. The dark burgundy color typically associated with those anthocyanins is clearly missing in the capsules we looked at.

Reason Number 2: the whole berry matters. If you want all the benefits of black raspberries, you need to have the whole berry, including the seeds and fiber! The easiest way to find this out is to see how well a company knows what is going into their products. Ask them where they get their berries, and if they use whole berries to produce their powders. Another easy clue is by reading the back label of the package and checking the fiber content on the facts chart.    

Reason Number 3: it should actually taste like a black raspberry! Authentic black raspberries should have an intense, rich fruity flavor with just a little tartness. The powder we tasted from capsules 1 through 3 ranged from bland to downright unpalatable and chalk-like. Taste is a great way to test the quality of the black raspberry powder you are taking, and even help judge if it is actually made from authentic black raspberries.

So a lot of these capsules aren't very good, but why aren't we making capsules?

The bottom line is, we don't think that capsules are what is best for our customers, so we don't make them. Our complete stance on black raspberries can be found in another blog post that outlines reasons 4, 5, and 6: Debunking 3 Black Raspberry Capsule Myths. 

Essentially, the average capsule contains the equivalent of only 1 1/2 berries, meaning you would need to take over 13 capsules to equal 4 grams of our powder. That's a lot of capsules. Plus the cost of the capsules can end up being over 3 times that of our black raspberry powder! Lastly, taking the powder in an encapsulated form greatly diminishes the effectiveness of the berry, because it does not have direct contact with the areas in the upper GI region of your body. 

We hope this has given you six good reasons to really think about how you are taking your black raspberry powder, and where you are getting it from! Just like when you buy fruit at a farmer's market, quality and authenticity matter.