Lionberry
REGENERATIVE
Myers Mushrooms announced today that their bottling line is fully assembled! In addition to more great mushroom products from Eric and his team, that also means we can make even more LionBerry Restorative Refresher this summer to keep you hydrated. Our founder Bevin Brooks said it best in her comment: “No Sleep till HYDRATION! We […]
What in the world is an AgriCluster? Ultimately, it is a fancy compound word that refers to interconnected agricultural businesses operating within a small radius. Or, as the North American Food Systems Network says: In order to support these AgriClusters, the North American Food Systems Network created the AgriCluster Resilience and Expansion (ACRE) program. ACRE, […]
We had a wonderful time this week at the International Elderberry Symposium in Columbia, Mo.! Thanks to the amazing friends we made there, we will have some big announcements coming soon, so stay tuned! One of those big connections we made was with Elderglen, an Australian company producing elderberry products. We also got to hang […]
Thank you to the Heartland Regional Food Business Center for their post about Lionberry on Instagram! The Business Center is an incredible community resource that supports farm and food enterprises as they develop food and markets in the region. You can follow their Instagram page and view the post below. In their own words: “The […]
Pride Month is here and we are excited to announce that Lionberry will be at KC Pride, June 6-8. You can find us in the food truck section and try the first farmed sports drink, Lionberry Restorative Refresher! View this post on Instagram A post shared by KC PRIDE (@kcpride1) It’s also been fun to […]
We are thrilled to announce that Lionberry will have a booth at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson! This huge, 10-day event is held at the Kansas State Fairgrounds beginning Sept. 5. This will cap an exciting and busy summer of farmers markets, fairs, and festivals. You can find our full schedule here. In addition […]
Elderberry is an EASY way to start Regenerative Farming Practices! Elderberry plays a beneficial role in REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE! 1. PREVENTS SOIL EROSION because elderberry has an extensive root systems that help stabilize soil and prevent erosion, especially in areas prone to runoff. 2. Suitable for Marginal Lands: Elderberry can thrive in soil considered less productive […]
If you have visited our LionBerry booth at a recent show, you have probably seen bottles of honey from our friends at SHoney Farm and Kennel. Located in Pottawatomie County, Kenny and Courtney started Shoney in 2021 with a single hive and have now grown into a multi-yard operation where they raise honeybees, harvest honeycomb […]
Eric Myers of Myers Mushrooms is one of our biggest small business allies! This commercial mushroom master has shared so much knowledge with us and we even wrangled him for a recent dinner when we were in Wichita for The Women’s Fair. Myers started his business in El Paso, Texas, in 2015 and eventually moved […]
Buehler Farms has been a staple in the local farming community for more than 125 years. Located in Mt. Vernon, Missouri, Buehler Farms is committed to “agroforestry” which they describe as: At Buehler Farms, we approach farming with the belief that healthy land produces healthy plants and elderberry is at the heart of that mission. […]
We make two products with elderberry: LionBerry Regenerative Hydration and Elderberry Sips. Neither one is a syrup.
Syrup is fine for pancakes. Thicker is not better.
For elderberry — as food, as medicine, for maximum benefit — drop the pH, pasteurize fast, protect plant properties, no powders.
Long, slow steeping in heat — like simmering elderberry with spices for hours — is not better. Powder is fine for powdered sugar, powdered snow, and baby powder — but not elderberry. There is no place for powder in food. Dehydrating and powdering food changes cell structure, uses too much heat, and burns off delicate plant properties.
We never use dehydrated powder. Most powdered elderberry comes from overseas. About 95% of drugstore elderberry products rely on powdered European elderberry.
We use the native American elderberry — Sambucus canadensis, fresh-pressed. American elderberry contains dramatically higher levels of anthocyanins — the purple antioxidants — roughly 10× the antioxidant activity of blueberries, for perspective. It’s beyond a superfruit. It also has antiviral activity and supports gut health and immune modulation.
LionBerry Regenerative Hydration is more than a sports drink. It’s a recovery drink — for after you got your butt kicked, or for whatever it is that life did to you.
It’s strange what we give athletes and kids: sports drinks and energy drinks loaded with artificial colors, sweeteners, powdered isolates, and caffeine. LionBerry is the opposite. Not an energy drink. No isolates. No powders. Whole plants, intact, grown out of the ground by farmers.
Plants work through synergy. Their compounds evolved to function together. Isolating one molecule misses the point.
For LionBerry Regenerative Hydration, we start with a clear, light base of elderflower tea — easily drinkable — and add it to our elderberry. The anthocyanins in elderberry are delicate. Long heat destroys them. Repeated freezing and thawing destroys them. Powdering destroys them.
Mass spectrometry consistently shows that whole-food preparations retain broader nutritional complexity than powders or isolates. Dehydration and reduction require too much heat — the plant properties burn off.
We engineer pH first — not reduction, not boiling, not cooking it down into a syrup.
Elderberry starts around pH 5.1. That’s too high for safe bottling.
People brag about odd things. I have heard competitors advertise that they never add water to their elderberry syrup. Good. I should hope not.
Making an elderberry syrup is about as medicinal as making pancake syrup. Making syrup is traditionally done by cooking elderberry down with honey and spices. That’s worse than adding water. The plant properties are all gone.
To preserve plant properties, you need to drop the pH to prevent botulism, preserve anthocyanins, and proceed with a hot fill, hold, and then hermetically seal — without boiling the plant into oblivion.
We don’t make syrup.
Our second product is Elderberry Sips — that’s the name. Capital E. Capital S. Plural.
Elderberry Sips uses fresh-pressed elderberry — never powder, never concentrate. We add Concord grape ( RESERVITOL-heart support) and tart cherry (melatonin & magnesium). Together they naturally drop the pH to ~3.7, allowing fast pasteurization without heat that causes degradation of purple elderberry anthocyanins The lower pH protects the delicate plant properties. Elderberry Sips is ~15% tart cherry and Concord Grape added to fresh pressed American Elderberry — without gallons of honey and without turning it into a syrup sugar bomb.
A syrup is defined as ~60% solids. To get there, you must boil and reduce. That process destroys anthocyanins.
Cinnamon is great — but it needs long, hot steeping. Elderberry needs fast, controlled heat. They are biologically opposite processes.
And yes, we use glass. We hate hauling it. We are beasts of burden. It’s heavy. It breaks. It’s fragile. It’s expensive to ship. Less-than-truckload shipping is brutal. There are glass tariffs.
But plastic leaches. Aluminum has plastic liners. And healthy bodies deserve better.
We don’t water down syrup. We don’t confuse chemistry with marketing.
We don’t want anyone out of business. We want elderberry done right.
When elderberry “doesn’t work,” it’s usually not the plant’s fault — it’s been overheated in dehydration, over-reduced in making a syrup, powdered and shipped from overseas, repeatedly frozen and thawed, or cooked into oblivion.
Quality matters. Results matter. Temperature, water activity, and pH matter.
We want elderberry’s reputation to be higher. We want better results. We want people impressed because it actually works.
Do elderberry right.