ViBERi Soft-dried Organic Blackcurrants product reviews

When selecting these to review I was wanting to try them more so to eat as they were in the packet for a healthy snack option rather than use them for baking in muffins or adding them to yoghurt and with breakfast cereals. The packet states they are extremely high in Vitmamin C which is great as I personally like to increase my Vitmain C intake during the Winter season! The packet itself is nicely presented , the front is attractive with the product name and a picture and isn't overloaded with facts about the product On the back is some content about the product but they have broken it down in an easy to understand manner so you aren't overwhelmed by complicated facts about the berries. The pack itself also has the resealable option so once you have opened it you can easily reseal it again keeping the remaining contents fresh which is more handy than having to change them to a more bulkier sealed container!

The berries themselves are soft dried and a rich dark purple colour. I found them rather chewy when eating them. The taste however was much sweeter than I anticipated and a little too much for my personal taste preference. I do wonder if the sweetness is enchanced due to the berries being infused with certified organic apple juice. I couldn't identify the apple juice taste but just found the overall taste to be very sweet to eat. I am a type 1 Diabetic so did wonder if perhaps they weren't so bad and due to not eating a lot of sweet things I have a lower preference to enjoying them so I offered them to the other adults in the household who aren't diabetics just to see their opinion. They also thought the sweetness was too strong to be something they would enjoy eating as a snack option by themselves.

Since the option of just as a snack hasn't worked out as planned I am going to look into adding them with a yoghurt or to smoothies or perhaps do some baking and make some muffins. I think this way the sweetness shouldn't be so bold and I will enjoy them more consumed this way.

Viberi New Zealand Organic Blackcurrant berries soft dried are very versatile and super yummy. These taste great either as a snack or added to other food to make them even more amazing. I tried these blackcurrant berries with porridge, Weetbix, cereal, yoghurt and with my baking and all of these ways of using the blackcurrant berries worked prefect.

I found the blackcurrant berries sweet but tasty and also rewarding that craving when looking for a sweet snack. Adding the blackcurrant berries to my porridge was my favourite. I normally eat my porridge plain with no added sugar or flavours apart from milk. So these blackcurrant berries were a real treat and made my breakfast more enjoyable.

My son who I thought would not like them also really liked them and asked to have some sprinkled on his cereal and yoghurt. I also made some banana muffins and added a couple handfuls in which he really enjoyed and so did I. My mum tried these muffins and she loved the blackcurrant berries added to the muffins. She thought it added a nice flavour and texture.

My mum tried these as a snack as well and enjoyed them as she says she has a sweet tooth and snacks a lot at work but feels she needs a healthier option. She asked a lot of questions and read the pack which she really liked what she read and said she would be interested in buying her some to take to work to snack on during the day rather than reaching for a unhealthy option. The price is great for the pack as you can get the same kind of packet sizes of nuts for the same price. So price wise and quality wise you get a good serving for your dollar. I would buy these again and I feel they would be great to have in the cupboard for baking with or for breakfasts.

I loved these soft little blackcurrant morsels and loved the variety of ways they could be used being a soft variety meant I could add them to baking and even just eat them as a soft dried fruit like you would raisins or dates. I did like the texture I find raisins quite dry and prefer sultana's and I do like prunes more than a date so these were in my sultana and date category having a slightly softer, moister texture. I think the apple juice probably helped with this to keep them moist in the drying process.

I loved the taste I love the tang of a blackcurrant and could eat them fresh so these were actually a lot sweeter than I had expected. I stirred them through my soy yoghurt with some blackcurrant powder which was amazing as I usually have a plain yoghurt so the currants and the powder added to yoghurt were amazing. I think it is great to have an alternative to some of the other dried fruits you see more commonly as blackcurrants have so much flavour and being a purple berry have lots of vitamins and antoxidants to keep you healthy.

I made a carrot cake and added some of these soft blackcurrants to the mix and also as decoration to the top of the cream cheese icing. The effect was quite spectacular as it added a different element to the cake and added a different flavour. Nuts and berries go so well so with walnut and blackcurrant on the top the cake was very well liked with everyone. I may of been a bit stingy as I didn't want to share my berries but everyone was asking what they were so they were a bit of a talking point.

First thing to note about the pack is that it contains 100g worth of product, as opposed to the 'Cacao', 'Ruby', and 'Noir' varieties which have only 90g; so that's an extra 11%, for a cheaper price than the other varieties. But of course this variety isn't dusted with cacao or viberi powder, and isn't rolled in dark chocolate.

So what is the main appeal of this product over others in the range? It would come down to the variety of uses. Every product that has raisins or sultanas in then, you can substitute in these soft dried blackcurrants. Blackcurrants are much smaller than grapes, so these soft dried blackcurrants are smaller than raisins, but the flavour is much sweeter, tarter, and more concentrated. Mix it in with yoghurt, add it to cereal and muesli, add it to a salad with chicken and pomegranate sauce or just eat it by the handful.

The apple juice does help a little bit with the acidity of the blackcurrant berries, reducing the sharpness, and providing a nice base. If you eat a whole handful at once, you can taste the apple juice when you bite into them, and it fills out the flavour profile. Despite the high sugar content of the product (what do you really expect? it is dried fruit) it has half of the calories when compared to the other "luxury" varieties.

Blackcurrants aren't something I have eaten a lot, however we always have raisins and/or sultanas in our house, Miss 4 loves to eat them just as they are however I buy them mainly for baking purposes. When I saw that there were soft-dried blackcurrants up for review I decided to request them as they appeared to be something which I knew I would be easily able to review in several ways, and something which I thought would quite possibly taste great.

The first thing which I noticed on the packaging was that the bag was resealable which I liked, if I can buy a product with a resealable package over one that is similar in price that isn't resealable the resealable package wins everytime. With Miss 4 standing around me waiting in anticipation to try something which looked to her like a raisin we each took a small handful to sample. Her reaction was one of a very happy child who told me they were "yummy" and then insisted on trying some more. I really quite liked the taste they did have quite a tart flavour to them but this soon grew on me and I enjoyed eating each and every one and as time went by I could start to taste a sweeter slightly tangy flavour to them.

With 100 grams of blackcurrants in the bag there was a great amount, so I decided to think up some other ways to try these other than just gobbling them up as is! I mixed some up in my muesli and they went wonderfully I loved the tangy taste of the blackcurrants in amongst the cashews, oats and honey. I then felt rather lucky to of had these on hand as I was on morning tea shout at work for the week and was busy preparing a chocolate fudge slice which called for 2 cups of dried cranberries, how ever I only had enough for 1 and a half cups so I decided to put 1/2 a cup of the blackcurrants in there place, and oh my I am so glad I did this made the slice so much more amazing I absolutely loved it as did all of my colleagues.

As far as superfoods go blackcurrants are right up there containing over double the amount of antioxidants of blueberries, something I would never have known! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this product when I am out shopping as it is so tasty and I can think of a 100 and 1 uses for it. A awesome product that is so good for you.

Whenever I have an open packet of sultanas or raisins, I become a compulsive nibbler. Alas, these soft dried berries are very similar - like a cross between a raisin and a currant - and I had just as much difficulty stopping myself from eating the whole packet in one go. They have a tart sweetness which has just the right balance and quite a strong flavour so go best with foods that are not too highly flavoured. I sprinkled a tablespoon of them on to my cereal and thoroughly enjoyed it. And then I put the rest of the packet away so that I could get a few other people to comment while there were still some left ...

My friends each took a small handful to test. There is a generous 100 grams in the packet, and you get a lot of berries - being dried, they weigh quite light so, although the pack is quite expensive, the blurb on the back indicates that there are ten servings and I would support that. My older friend (a pensioner) is on a restricted income but she said she would buy these as they taste really good and would last her for a while. However, like me, she said she would have to be wary of binge eating!

Her daughter was not so impressed. She thought the apple flavour took over from the berries; in fact, she actually identified the apple before I could tell her the ingredients. As she is not keen on apple, this was a minus for the product as far as she was concerned - although she was impressed that it has a high Vitamin C content and felt that it might be a useful dietary supplement. She thought the berries would go nicely with an unsweetened natural yoghurt. Having a demanding job means that she tries to take high energy natural food for lunch, and yogurt often features as it is a useful convenience meal.

Both mother and daughter felt that the suggestion on the pack to serve it with nuts would not work as the strong flavours would drown each other out. I am not sure about that - I think they would go well with milder flavours like cashew, or even with small pieces of coconut, and am going to test out these combinations myself. At some stage, too, I can see them being tasty in plain baked muffins. Just so long as I don't finish the rest of the packet first!