Dried sea buckthorn berries, powder and leaves

The whole fruit and leaf, unprocessed beyond drying — the oldest form of all.

The least processed form

Before juice and capsules, sea buckthorn was dried. Whole dried berries, berry powder and dried leaf are what the fruit has been kept as across Ladakh and Central Asia for as long as there are records, because a soft, bursting, highly perishable berry has to be preserved somehow.

What each is for

Dried berries — eaten as they are, or soaked. Intensely sour, and they keep.
Berry powder — stirred into water, smoothies or food. The easiest way to add the berry to something you already eat.
Leaves — brewed as a tea. The leaf carries flavonoids rather than oil, so it is a different proposition from the fruit, not a cheaper version of it.

The trade-off

These are the least concentrated and least consistent forms — a spoon of powder is not a measured dose the way 10 ml of juice is. What you get in exchange is the whole food, including the fibre, and a form that keeps in a cupboard.

The range