**REVIEW** Boulders Miracle Berry Powder

A bit of brand confusion

The first thing you should know is that although this miracle berry powder is labeled "Boulder", the mailing package was marked as being sent from Sweat Freaks.

Sweet Freaks, Boulder, Zobo Red...
Identity crisis

I think that Sweet Freaks is the actual name of the brand/seller. It's all a little confusing because this powder (labeled as being from New Zealand) and brand seem to be associated with the Zobo Red brand powder (labeled as being "grown in the USA". Also, the ebook Sweet Freaks: drinks edition (miracle berry recipe book) promotes products from Sweet Freaks, Boulder, and Zobo Red in addition to the Flavornaut brand. I'll be referring to this item as being from Boulders (though the ordering info shows it as being sold by Zobo Red).  This is what I received in the mail:

Since I've had mixed results with other brands of miracle berry products - freeze-dried berries and tablets - I decided to start with zero expectations this time. Right off, I was pretty underwhelmed by the package size of this product. It was so thin that I wondered if I was getting some kind of letter instead of the actual powder.

More product confusion

I went back to check the product info on Amazon for the size and servings amount. There was some confusion there also. This is what is shown on the Amazon product page:

This is what is on the back of the actual package:

In the Questions section at the bottom of the product page, this is how another customer responded to the query about the serving size:

This is what I saw when I looked inside the package. 

It's kind of hard to tell, but while there is not a lot of product, there is more than what this photo shows. I didn't want to mess around trying to get a better photo and end up spilling any of the powder. The texture is not as fine as talcum powder and reminds me of very finely ground cornmeal. The taste of a small amount on my tongue has a slight sweetness to it. It's pleasant and sweeter than the dissolving tablet I've tried. There is a small amount added "to stabilize" the powder but I have no idea what arrowroot tastes like so...

Mberry effect on coffee (in general/any brand)

One thing I discovered from my previous use of miracle berry is that while it did nothing to sweeten the taste of my coffee, it did have an effect on the taste of it. At the time, I was drinking my coffee with lots of sweetened creamers. The miracle berry flattened the taste so much that it made the coffee unpleasant, in my opinion. Now that I am drinking my coffee black (whole other story there), I was concerned that the berry effects would ruin that too. Just in case, I held off trying out the berry until much later in the day when I would be finished with my final cup of coffee.  It had zero effect on the black coffee. At least now I know that I can use the berry at any point during the day and still have my coffee (as long as the coffee is black and unsweetened).

Taste tests (of products to date)

For comparison, of all the miracle berry products I've used so far the best one and my absolute favorite: 1 Richberry's freeze-dried halves. 2) Still effective but much less so were the freeze-dried berries from Snozzberry Farm. I initially thought the berries were fresh because they were kind of sticky to the touch but now I think they felt like that from being old and stale. They also shorted my order of berries by quite a lot. 3) The least effective product were the tablets from MiraBerry (currently not available). I will be doing a post showing how all the products compared in taste-testing  But basically, the Boulder powder was, at best, only mildly effective.

• Greek yogurt (non-fat, plain) tasted like... Greek yogurt, non-fat and plain. The powder took softened the sour notes just by the tiniest bit. I doubled up on the powder and, while the yogurt was not as sour, it still was not something I wanted to eat without adding fruit or sweetener.
• Greek yogurt (w/lemon juice) tasted a little better but I don't know if that was from the powder or just the added lemon.
• Goat cheese (plain) this seemed to taste worse with the powder. There was no sweetening or softening of the sharp flavor.
• Goat cheese (w/lemon) had no change in flavor
• Lemon water & ACV water had no sweetening change in taste at all. The ACV had a different taste but I can't put my finger on what it was. It was still too strong to sip though.

I started out using about .5 grams of the powder for the above results. When I doubled up the dose to try the plain yogurt and goat cheese, there was no improvement. There's not enough powder in the package to double or triple doses anyway. It would be too expensive even if it worked.

Used 6 of these  little dessert spoons to get the
3 grams (0.1oz)

0.5 grams per spoonful

Remember the serving size listed on the back of the package? There was no way I was going to get 25 servings from the bag I received. I was running out just getting the tastes tests done. If I had liked this powder, I wouldn't want to $13 per bag that would not last even a few days. That would be like having a drug habit, wouldn't it? I mean, I don't know what people pay for drugs, but if it was $13 a bag, I'd be out of luck.

Bottom line

In my opinion, I don't think this powder is worth it. I went back and read reviews written and questions asked and answered by customers. There were only 16 reviews currently and 2 of those (including my own) are negative. The rest are really positive. I have to think the reason is that not everyone does well with certain forms of miracle berry. I hope those glowing reviews are not the result of cheating the system (either by getting free products or being otherwise compensated to say positive things).

Personally, I get a much better effect from the berries. Even the worst berries delivered some results for me. Tablets would be my second choice. I  haven't yet reviewed one of the tablets I've tried.The company is tweaking their product and I will review it when they have the new items up for sale. I have to admit that the tablet  gave a nice effect. It just was not as strong  and it wasn't long-lasting at all, wearing off after only 15 minutes or so and I told the seller who gave me a sample box. The company is tweaking the product and I will review it when they have the new items up for sale.

Along with Snozzerberry Farm brand, I just cannot give a good review to Boulders. Because I based my grovery budget and eating plan around the berries, I used the refund from Snozzberry to go back and purchase more of the Richberry product. I will stick with them until something better-priced or more effective comes around.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: Sorry for any typos/errors. It's been a rough couple of days and I wrote this post over a 2-period.