Elderberry, explained
What elderberry is, and why ours tastes like fruit.
A short, honest guide for anyone who has heard the word a hundred times and never quite known what it is. Two minutes to read, and then you can decide for yourself.
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The plant
A small, dark berry that people have been cooking down for a very long time.
Elderberries grow in flat clusters on deep red stems, on a shrub that likes hedgerows and riverbanks. The berries are tiny and almost black. That colour comes from anthocyanins, the pigments that make them so rich in antioxidants. For generations they have been simmered down and taken by the spoon.
Ours is taken as daily immune support: one spoonful with breakfast, as part of a routine rather than a rescue. The label says it plainly, immune-boosting antioxidants.* It is not a medicine and it does not pretend to be one. It is a very good berry, pressed while it is fresh.
Why ours is different
Most elderberry syrup starts dried. Ours starts as juice.
Same berry, two very different bottles. This is the only part worth arguing about.
Whole dried berries, usually bought from a long way away, so nobody can tell you how old they are or how long they travelled. Cooked in a lot of water with powdered spices, then strained. Some are called local because the honey is. The berries usually are not.
Fresh organic elderberries from Missouri farms, pressed the way you would press a juice, then brewed with whole organic spices: Ceylon cinnamon, whole clove, raw ginger. Nothing reconstituted. Glass, not plastic. The payoff is the mouthfeel. It tastes like fruit because it started as fruit.
Everything that is in it
Turn the bottle around and the whole list fits in a breath.
- First-press elderberry juice
- Filtered water
- Raw honey
- Organic ginger
- Organic Ceylon cinnamon
- Organic whole cloves
- Organic lemon juice
No gums, no fillers, nothing added to make it pour nicer. The honey and the lemon are the reason kids will take it without a standoff.
The question everyone asks
It tastes like fruit. That still surprises people.
Most elderberry tastes like a chore. Ours does not, and that is the thing customers tell us most. It is the honey and the lemon, and the fact that the juice was never dried and rebuilt.
I have tried other elderberry products but was unhappy with the taste. This is the best tasting elderberry!!
How to take it
One spoon, with breakfast, all year.
There is no protocol and no chart. It comes out with the cereal all twelve months, because a habit is much easier to keep than to remember.
A teaspoon for a kid, a full tablespoon for an adult, once a day. Real measuring spoons pour more easily, especially without the spout.
In the fridge once it is open. Before that, the pantry is fine. Straight off the spoon, stirred into tea, or in a glass of water, all fine.
The gummies are the same daily habit with no fridge and no spoon. Travel-friendly, and teachers and nurses keep them in their bag.
Where it comes from
Grown by Missouri farmers, pressed in small batches.
Real rows, real growers, and a real harvest window in late summer. The elixir is first-press only, made from each year's Missouri harvest. When you can name where something was grown, trust us stops being the whole pitch.
Why we are this particular about it
A U.S. Pharmacopeia study of elderberry supplements found that 46% didn't match their labels.
That is not an accusation about anyone in particular. It is a good reason to ask where a bottle actually came from, and you should not need a lab to find out. Ours says so on the label, all seven ingredients, in a breath.
*Finding of a U.S. Pharmacopeia study of elderberry supplements available on the US market.
Straight answers
The things people ask before their first bottle.
Is it alright for kids?
Ours is made with kids in mind. A teaspoon is the usual amount. If you have a question about a particular child, ask their doctor, or email allthings@allthingselderberry.com and Emilia will read it.
What if I do not like the taste?
You would be in a small minority. The honey and lemon do most of the work, and the juice was never dried and rebuilt, so it tastes like fruit.
Does it need the fridge?
Once it is open, yes. Sealed, the pantry is fine.
Is it organic?
It is made with organic ingredients: first-press juice from organically grown berries, organic ginger, organic Ceylon cinnamon, organic whole cloves, organic lemon juice.
Where do the berries come from?
The elixir is pressed from berries grown on Missouri farms. Same farms, same harvest, every year.
How long does a bottle last?
The 16 oz bottle is about a month for one adult at a tablespoon a day. Most households put it on repeat so it never runs out mid-October.
Love the elixir so much. It's delicious and knowing it's quality ingredients gives me a lot of confidence in the product.
Try the Everyday Elixir.
16 fl oz. One spoonful a day. Daily immune support the whole family will actually take.
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