Can anyone answer a question about Goji Berries? Recently I bought a bag of dried berries in Chinatown in San Francisco and though they are labeled Lycium berries they taste, look, smell, exactly like the fancy goji berries that I buy at Whole Foods except they were one third of the price.
What is the difference between the two? I glanced through wickipedia on the term ‘wolfberry’ and it leads me to believe that both are the same (also leads me to believe that it’s not the superfood that many people) however does anyone know the difference or is it just clever marketing on the part of the goji berry crowd.
Comments
As far I know, they are one and the same. I have seen people swear they are different, but I have a little botanical training and have compared both of them (the fruit anyway, not the flowers or leaves).
The chinese ones are called ‘wolfberries’ and when I asked a chinese herbalist if they were the same as goji berries he laughed and said they were. I get the impression that the goji berries are a great marketing ploy.
If they are indeed one and the same, the only difference would be in the processing. The wolfberries harvested from China would not be organic, and many areas of China have massive pollution problems, with many foods tainted by these pollutants, including heavy metals.
Nowadays I have seen cheaper organic goji berries on sale in some supermarkets. Not sure what the production background to these brands are, but I imagine that gojis will start to get cheaper as production is increased and people cotton onto the fact that the super expensive brands can be out-competed in quality and price.
But other more epxerienced people may know differently, so don’t take my word for it.
The botanical name of goji berries is “lycium barbarum”
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lycium-...
so, i suppose that goji, wolf and lycium berries are the same thing.
I get my berries by planting my own blueberry plants. I just feel more comfortable eating berries that I grew on my own.