MonaVie® The Yumberry

 

Its name is Yan Mei, pronounced (yun-mee) in the native dialect.  The name sounded so close to “yummy,” that, in 2003, Charles Stenftenagel, a garden products importer from Indiana, renamed the superfruit (yumberry). And it is truly yummy, a perfect balance of sweet and tart. The super fruit Yumberry tastes like a pomegranate with a pleasantly tart with sweet undertones.

 

Yumberries are picked at their peak, during a brief summertime window each season.  Yumberries are delicate and perishable, so they must be pressed soon after harvest to produce the freshest, most vibrant juice possible.

 

Yumberry has been harvested in China for over 5,000 years in the fields of the Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai. In ancient times, the Chinese ate Yan Mei to ease stomach distress. The native tree that bears this fruit, Myrica rubra, is a cousin to the bayberry tree, which grows in temperate climates in the United States. Unlike yumberries, bayberries are used primarily in the U.S. for making candles.

 

Yumberry trees are naturally resistant to bug infestations, so producers can cultivate many varieties without harmful pesticides. With new varieties and improved growing procedures, yumberry crops have thrived and multiplied to over 865,000 acres in Asia. By comparison, the United States has over 400,000 acres of apples and nearly 850,000 of citrus trees.  The only U.S. fruit crop that surpasses yumberry production is that of grapes, at nearly one million total acres.