What are the Different Types of Boysenberry Products?

The boysenberry is an interesting fruit that is a cross between four berries, which are the American dewberry, the European raspberry, the European blackberry, and the loganberry.

Nobody knows where exactly the boysenberry started to grow, but a grower named Rudolph Boysen is credited as the first successful cultivator of the fruit when he got the dewberry-loganberry parent from the farm of a man named John Lubben. However, Boysen stopped the cultivation of the berry when he sold his farm in the 1920s, but it reemerged when George M. Darrow, who worked for the USDA during the same period, obtained the surviving vines from Boysen’s farm and nurtured it back to health. 

Darrow asked for the assistance of Walter Knott, who owned a farm in Buena Park, California, in order to cultivate it again using the farm’s soil. Once the vines were able to bear fruit, Walter Knott then began selling the berries to the public. Knott subsequently named the fruit “boysenberry” as a nod to its original cultivator.

Boysenberries became popular because it has plenty of benefits for the human body. They are said to contain a sufficient amount of dietary fiber that helps us digest food properly and make our bowel movement function better. 

The fruit is also rich in folate and potassium that improve brain health. Its potassium can also help us maintain good blood pressure so that we can prevent cardiovascular diseases from occurring in our body. Vitamin K is also present in boysenberries, and it is a nutrient that can strengthen our bones. Furthermore, boysenberries are excellent sources of vitamin C and other antioxidants, which can aid in our body’s fight against toxins that can often cause serious illnesses like cancer and diabetes.

Types of Boysenberry Products

There are many ways for us to use and apply the benefits of the boysenberry in our body besides eating it as a fruit. Here are some of the most popular types of products that use the boysenberry as the primary ingredient.

Preserves

Fruits that are preserved in sugar to make it last longer are called preserves, and the boysenberry variant of it is considered the first boysenberry product that became available in the market when Knott’s Berry Farm sold them in the 1920s.

The boysenberry preserves can be used as a filling for sandwiches, and it can also be added as an ingredient for baking and cooking. The product can also be eaten on its own, but its sweetness can be too much for some people. Some of the best boysenberry preserves include the Danish Orchards Premium Boysenberry Preserves and the Dickinson’s Seedless Boysenberry Preserves.

Jam

The boysenberry jam is similar to fruit preserves, but the fruits used for it are crushed to make it softer in texture. They are often combined with peanut butter and used as filling for sandwiches for better taste. They can also be added as toppings on bagels and toasts.

If you are going to purchase boysenberry jams, it is recommended that you get the ones will all-natural ingredients to ensure that they don’t have preservatives. A few great all-natural boysenberry jams available online are the Kauffman’s Boysenberry Jam and Maury Island Farms Gourmet Boysenberry Jam.

Syrup

For those who want a truly liquid form of the boysenberry that they can add to different foods, then they should get the boysenberry syrup, which has a milder sweetness than both the preserves and the jam.

The boysenberry syrup can be poured onto pancakes, waffles, and toasts to make them sweeter. There are plenty of boysenberry syrup products that you can buy in grocery stores, but the best-tasting ones are the Pioneer Valley Boysenberry Fancy Syrup and the Maple Grove Farms All-Natural Boysenberry Syrup.

Tea

People who may not like the overly sweet taste of jams and preserve may opt to go for boysenberry tea as a better option to get the fruit’s benefits. Despite being in tea form, the boysenberry found in it still has its characteristic sweet taste but is much milder and more subtle than the flavor of the boysenberry syrup.

TerraVita is the most popular company that produces boysenberry tea, and they often sell it in bagged and loose forms.

Coffee

Besides tea, boysenberries can also be drunk as coffee. Boysenberry coffee is the perfect drink for breakfast as it combines the benefits of the special fruit with coffee beans that will surely boost your energy in the morning.

Larissa Veronica is a company that offers a dozen varieties of the boysenberry coffee, but their best-sellers are the French Roast Boysenberry Coffee and the Colombian Boysenberry Decaf Coffee.

Extract

For versatility in terms of using the boysenberry as an ingredient for cooking or baking, its extract version may be the best one to use since you don’t have to crush fruits to turn it into jams or preserves and you don’t have to deal with the sticky texture of syrups.

The boysenberry extracts can be mixed with different ingredients and can be used for making cakes, drinks, and even ice cream. Silver Cloud Flavors offers bottles of boysenberry extract that you can easily buy online and in grocery stores.

These are just some of the most common types of boysenberry products, and there may be plenty more types that are obscure or rare that you can find almost anywhere. Having one type of boysenberry product is enough for you to get the fruit’s nutrients, but it is better if you have at least two so that you can taste the boysenberry in different forms and textures.