Choosing Elderberry Products: Why Most Elderberry Products Aren’t What You Think, And What to Look for Instead
- Benjamin Machlitt
- Jan 7
- 5 min read
If you’ve ever picked up an elderberry product at a store and thought, “Cool. It says elderberry, so I’m good,” you’re not alone.
That’s kind of the whole problem.
Because a label that says “elderberry” doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting something high-quality. In a lot of cases, you’re honestly buying a watered-down placebo, and you’d have no way of knowing unless you know what to look for when you're choosing elderberry products.
So this post is me pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly what makes Popple Tree Creek Farms different, why we do things the way we do, and how you can spot a quality elderberry product whether you buy from us or someone else.
That’s my philosophy, by the way:If you walk away educated and buy from a local maker near you, that’s still a win in my book. If you try our stuff too? Even better.
The big issue: most elderberry products aren’t made the way you think.
Here’s the reality:
About 99% of the elderberry products you’ll see in America are made from dehydrated European elderberries. Usually in powder form. Usually imported. Usually processed and stored for who-knows-how-long before it turns into a “supplement.”
And look, I’m not here to trash other businesses. I’m just saying most people don’t realize the difference.
A lot of products are built around:
“Big immune claims”
Buzzwords
A label that looks legit
But when you actually compare the ingredients and the amounts per serving… it gets real clear, real fast.
What makes Popple Tree Creek Farms different?
1) We use fresh American elderberries, not dehydrated imported berries, overprocessed or diluted concentrates.
This is the foundation of everything we do.
We grow and source American elderberries: Sambucus canadensis (American black elderberry). Not European Sambucus nigra powder that’s been dehydrated, shipped, and reconstituted later.
We make our syrup from real, fresh-pressed elderberry juice.
Not powder. Not concentrate. Not “elderberry flavor.” Not a sprinkle of elderberry with a huge ingredient list behind it.
And yes, elderberries do get frozen. They have to.
They’re insanely perishable. If you harvest elderberries and even put them in the fridge, they’ll spoil in under a week. That’s just the nature of the fruit.
So our process looks like this:
Harvest berries
Clean and sanitize all utensils and surfaces the berries will touch
De-stem them (we use a small machine, kind of like a miniature combine / modified grape de-stemmer)
Wash+Sanitize
Rinse
Rinse
Drain
Freeze immediately
Press and process when we’re ready to make syrup
That’s what I mean when I say “fresh.”
And one more thing that matters here:
We’ve use only the freshest and most ripe berries. If berries are kept cold enough, they can last a long time, but because of the demand for elderberry syrup made with fresh pressed American elderberry juice we don’t do that. We’re not stockpiling old inventory and stretching it across multiple seasons.
2) We don’t water it down (and we use amounts that match the research)
This is where the label-reading part comes in.
When you walk into a big box store, you’ll see elderberry syrup everywhere. And some of it is fine. But there’s also a huge divide between what’s available and what’s actually good.
If you want one simple action step that’ll change everything:
Look at how much elderberry is in each serving.
Most products are somewhere around:
250 mg to 550 mg per serving
Our elderberry syrup is:
9,500 mg per serving (that’s 9.5 grams)
That’s not a typo. And yes, it makes a difference.
We consider what we do the standard because we’re not just trying to make something that “contains elderberry.” We’re making something that’s actually concentrated in a way that’s consistent with how elderberries are studied and used.
So don’t just look at the bottle price.
Do the math:
How many servings per bottle?
How many milligrams per serving?
What are you actually paying per gram of elderberry?
Because a cheaper bottle that’s mostly sweetener and water isn’t cheaper if you’re getting almost no elderberry.
3) We’re obsessive about showing you what “good” looks like
This is a big one for me.
The health and wellness space has… a lot going on. There’s a lot of misinformation and marketing. And some companies lean hard into big claims without a lot of substance behind them.
We take the opposite approach.
We believe in transparency:
What we make
How we make it
What ingredients we use
Why we use them
What to look for when you’re shopping
And again, I’m not trying to “steal” business from every other elderberry maker in America.
There are 300 million people in this country. I’m not supplying everyone.
What I am doing is educating people so you’re not stuck buying something just because the front of the label says the right word.
4) We use real honey as the sweetener (because elderberries are intense)
Here’s something most people don’t expect:
Elderberries straight off the bush are not sweet. They’re bitter and pungent. Very strong flavor.
But when you add the right sweetener, something kind of magical happens. They taste phenomenal.
Most elderberry syrups are sweetened for that reason.
We sweeten ours with honey (Midwestern honey, local to us). We like it for flavor, and we like it as a whole-food ingredient choice.
5) We’re a family-run farm, and we’re building this the right way
Popple Tree Creek Farms isn’t a factory brand.
It’s me (Ben) and my family. my wife and our two daughters, plus help from extended family when we need it. We’re a first-generation farm up here in northern Minnesota (zone 3B… which is basically “hard mode” farming).
We started this whole thing in 2020 making elderberry syrup for ourselves. Then we shared it. Then other people shared it. And suddenly I became the underground elderberry syrup supplier in our county.
We started the farm in 2021. I got licensed as a wholesale food manufacturer in 2021. I left my corporate job in 2023 and went all-in.
And right now, we’re building a new facility on the farm:
40’ x 80’ building
With a large commercial kitchen
So we can keep scaling while staying true to quality and process
That matters because it’s not just “small batch” as a slogan. It’s small batch with the infrastructure to do it safely, consistently, and transparently.
How to tell if an elderberry product is high quality (even if you don’t buy from us)
If you take nothing else from this post, take this checklist.
Check the label for:
1) Elderberry amount per serving: More matters. A lot.
2) What form it’s in: Fresh juice vs powder/concentrate matters.
3) Ingredient list: If elderberry is buried in a long list and you can’t tell what you’re actually getting, that’s a flag.
4) Who made it and where it came from: Transparency matters. If you can’t find basic sourcing or process info, that’s worth noticing.
If you want to try what we consider “the standard”
If you’re curious what fresh-pressed American elderberry syrup tastes like (and what it looks like when it’s not watered down), that’s what we do.
We built Popple Tree Creek Farms around one idea:
Elderberry products should be made with real ingredients, at real concentrations, with full transparency.
If that’s what you’re looking for, we’d love to earn your business.
👉 Check out our elderberry syrup and other elderberry wellness products, and if you ever have questions, ask. I mean it. I’d rather you be informed than confused.
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