Sea buckthorn vs barberry

Two intensely sour orange-red berries of Eurasia, both difficult to harvest, and both essentially never drunk without sugar.

botanical

What is being compared

Aspect	Sea buckthorn	Barberry
What it is	A vivid orange berry from a thorny coastal and mountain shrub.	A tiny red berry from an Iranian and central European shrub.
Harvest	Berries cling so tightly that branches are cut and frozen so the fruit can be knocked off.	Whole branches are cut and dried in shade before the berries are stripped.
Flavour	Ferociously sour with a tropical passion-fruit aroma and an oily texture.	Sharply sour with a bitter edge and no oiliness.
Where it is drunk	Russia, Finland, Mongolia, Ladakh and Tibet.	Iran above all, and across the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Best form	Frozen or juice; dried loses most of what makes it interesting.	Dried, which it survives well if shade-dried.
Colour	Deep orange, and it stains.	Bright red, and colour is the grading criterion.
Surprise	The tropical aroma, which no northern berry has any business having.	How much sharper it is than the cherry it resembles.

Barberry is the practical purchase and sea buckthorn the more extraordinary flavour, provided you can get it frozen rather than dried.

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