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My Favorite Freeze-Dried Berries: LOOV Organic
I live in a rural area in the woods of Wisconsin, so I do most of my grocery shopping online. I get most of my produce through Misfits Market, which has been great, though fresh produce from there ripens fast and needs to be used up quickly once it arrives. They don’t carry frozen berries though, so for those I usually turn to Thrive Market or my local grocery stores at times. The fruit I actually reach for most is blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and peaches when I can get them. I prefer buying all of that frozen and organic (better prices and they last longer), but between the price and not being near a real grocery store very often, I run out more than I’d like.
A while back, LOOV reached out to me and sent me some products to try out. And, my son and I really enjoyed all of them. After that, we decided to partner on a video together, with more coming in the future. This particular post is not sponsored though. I just wanted to spread the word myself here because I genuinely love their products and I’m pretty picky.
About LOOV Organic & Their Wild-Harvested Organic Berries
If you haven’t heard of them, LOOV Organic is a small company that sources wild-harvested berries from certified organic forests in the Nordic region – mainly Estonia, Finland, and Sweden, then freeze-dries them into whole berries and powders. Their products includes wild blueberries (bilberries), lingonberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, cranberries, strawberries, nutritional yeast, and sea buckthorn – sold as either whole freeze-dried fruit or as powders you can mix into things like smoothies, yogurt, or drinks. Everything is organic, with no added sugar, fillers, or preservatives. If you want to try out their products, you can use my code: LIFEDIY for 10% off your order.
Wild Nordic Berries vs. What We Grow Here
LOOV sources their berries as wild-harvested, from remote organic forests in the Nordic region, rather than growing them on a farm the way most US berries are. That distinction matters more than I expected, and it’s not just “wild vs. cultivated” – it’s specifically about where the berries grow.
LOOV breaks it down into three types: regular cultivated blueberries, American wild blueberries, and Nordic wild blueberries (also called bilberries). According to their own data, cultivated blueberries come in around 140 mg of anthocyanins per 100g. American wild blueberries are a bit higher, around 150 mg per 100g. Nordic wild blueberries are on a completely different level, at around 800 mg per 100g. Anthocyanins are important because they act as antioxidants, neutralizing free radicals in the body.
So even our own American wild blueberries aren’t in the same range as the Nordic ones. LOOV attributes that gap to the growing conditions – the Nordic bilberries grow in remote forests away from pollution, in a climate with long daylight hours in summer and very cold winters, which seems to push the plant to produce more of those protective compounds. The American wild blueberries, by comparison, are still commercially managed by growers and aren’t necessarily pesticide-free, even though they’re technically “wild.”
I don’t think cultivated organic berries are necessarily bad, and I still buy frozen organic blueberries from the store. I just like knowing I have their wild-harvested option in the mix too, especially one that’s third-party tested. When it comes to products here in the U.S., I do my best to buy organic, even though I still wonder what they’re spraying the berries with. I know that non-organic U.S. berries are heavily sprayed with pesticides, so that is something I’m trying to avoid at all costs.
I’m definitely more optimistic about the potential benefits and antioxidants in their wild-harvested berries compared to what I’m consuming in the U.S. with my frozen organic berries. I also love that there are a variety of berries that I had never heard of or tried prior to using their products. For example, their Lingonberries are totally new to me and I love their flavor and how tart they are.
How I Actually Use These
My son and I both love the whole freeze-dried berries as a snack on their own. In addition, my son likes to add about 1-2 tb of one of the fruit powders when he’s making a smoothie with frozen fruit. My simplest go-to is mixing organic frozen blueberries from the store with a scoop of the LOOV freeze-dried lingonberries, then pouring coconut milk over the top.
The powders are where things get more interesting though. I mix them with coconut milk and it actually thickens things up nicely. My go-to lately is adding 1 tb of chia seeds and about 1 tb of the LOOV blackcurrant powder to a jar, pouring in a little warm water to help with the chia seeds, then adding in about half a cup of coconut milk and shaking it up.
I let that sit in the fridge, and later I’ll top it with some fresh fruit and eat it straight out of the jar. It usually makes enough for two servings, so I’ll have half one time and the rest later. This has become my go-to staple snack for after dinner. I’m also going to experiment with the fruit powders plus gelatin to make homemade fruit gummies.
Why I Like Having These on Hand
✔️ Wild-harvested from organic forests
✔️ No added sugar, no preservatives
✔️ Long shelf life
✔️ Lightweight and easy to travel with
✔️ Third-party tested
If you want to try them, you can check out LOOV Organic here – use code LIFEDIY for 10% off.
