Maqui and Acai are the ultimate purple antioxidant superfoods - there's a 500mg dose of each in every Purple Luvju. We've also added Raw Cacao, Sour Cherries and White Mulberries to complete your super antioxidant fix.
*[due to unforeseen demand, this variety of Luvju is temporarily packaged in a 100% compostable clear unprinted wrapper rather than that which is pictured above. As soon as new stocks become available we will return to the original packaging]
A juicy explosion of energising antioxidant goodness! Loving Earth's Purple Luvju contains a 500 mg dose of each of the highest antioxidising berries in existence: Maqui and Acai. To these we’ve added cashew, white mulberry, sour cherry and cacao, moulding them into a classic heart-shape. What we end up with is a really juicy multi-dimensional flavour arising between the creaminess of the cashew and the white mulberry together with the tartness and the bitterness of the sour cherry and the cacao. Finally, the maqui and acai comes in over the end, resulting in a beautiful purple colour.
We’ve using the first compostable metalised film that’s just come out in Europe for our Luvju bars. We’ve had it laminated to a paper finish on the outside, so it’s actually 96% plant-based compostable material. The dispenser box is printed on recycled board with vegetable inks and includes a unique design incorporating a totem on the front to reflect the spirit of each flavour. With Purple Luvju we’ve got a baby condor, which symbolises energy, strength and rebirth, due to the inclusion of the antioxidants.
Serving Size 50g
| Per Serve | Per 100g | |
| Energy | 968kJ | 1940kJ |
| Protein | 5.2g | 10.4g |
| Fat, total | 12.5g | 24.9g |
| - saturated | 2.9g | 5.8g |
| Carbohydrate | 22.6g | 45.3g |
| - sugars | 11.8g | 23.6g |
| Sodium | 17mg | 35,g |
Our Acai Powder is wildharvested from Acai palms growing in the coastal estuaries of the Tumaco region in Colombia, where they get mineralised by the Pacific Ocean. This, along with the fact that the Acai pulp is NOT pasteurised before it is freeze-dried, results in an ORAC score of 182,146 uM trolox / 100g. This is nearly twice as much as Acai sourced from the Brazilian Amazon making it an extremely high source of anti-oxidants.
The benefits of the Maqui Berry are many and varied; read this report from Food Chemistry for the full details.
Our raw freeze-drying process retains maximum nutrients meaning that our Raw Organic Maqui Powder is a true wholefood supplement. With the highest antioxidant quantity of any fruit, Maqui is reported to stimulate weight loss, delays the ageing process and detoxifies and cleanses the body. Research is also showing that it's a powerful anti-inflammatory and contains high levels of polyphenols and anthocyanins.
Antioxidants are substances that delay the oxidation process, which is the natural deterioration of cells leading to ageing. A growing body of literature points to the importance of natural antioxidants from many plants, which may be used to reduce cellular oxidative damage, not only in foods, but also in the human body. This may provide protection against a wide range of chronic diseases. The ORAC test measures a food’s antioxidant ability to neutralise free radicals and potentially mitigate health imbalances. The USDA recommend up to 5,000 ORAC units per day and more if under any of the various stressors most of us face each day. Most individuals get only 1,200 ORAC units or less per day; using a wholefood supplement such as Maqui as part of a healthy balanced diet will ensure that you're getting enough antioxidants to reap the maximum benefit.
Anthocyanins are antioxidant flavonoids that protect many body systems and have some of the strongest physiological effects of any plant compounds. They're produced by plants for self-protection against sun, irradiation, diseases and biological enemies.
Laboratory research shows that anthocyanins:
Raw Cacao beans contain 10 grams of flavonol antioxidants per 100 grams, which is an incredible 10%. Research has also demonstrated that the antioxidants in cacao are highly stable and easily available to human metabolism. In the adjacent table you can see that our Loving Earth Raw Chocolate has more antioxidants than Goji Berries and Acai Berries. The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to measure the ability of antioxidants to absorb free radicals, which normally cause cell and tissue damage. The higher the ORAC score, the higher the level of antioxidants present in the food.
Raw cacao is the primary dietary source of magnesium, the most deficient mineral in western civilisation. Magnesium is the most important mineral for a healthy functioning heart. It also plays a key role in producing energy for the neurons in the brain from glucose. So when there is an abundance of magnesium the brain works with clarity and focus.
Cacao is a great source of serotonin, dopamine, anandamide and phenylethylamine (PEA), four well-studied neurotransmitters, which are associated with feelings of well being and help alleviate depression. Both PEA and Anandamide (the bliss chemical) are found in abundance in the brains of happy people and are particularly released when we are feeling happy. Both of these nuerotransmitters are present in raw cacao in large enough quanitities to affect the brain and lift our moods. Cacao also contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO Inhibitors) that keep neurotransmitters in the bloodstream for longer without being broken down.
We have all experienced the positive feelings associated with eating chocolate, now we have access to pure raw unadulterated chocolate in the form of organic raw cacao. This is much more potent than the processed chocolate and doesn't have any sugar or dairy products blocking the positive effects of all the goodies in raw cacao. My experience is that eating 11 raw cacao beans is enough to experience a blissful sense of well being.
White Mulberries serve to "tonify" the blood. They are a great source of protein, iron, calcium, vitamin K, C, A, B6 and E, fiber, potassium, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid, manganese, magnesium and antioxidants.
Enjoy as a healthy, energising snack whenever you need a boost. Great to carry with you on days spent outdoors, whether going for a hike or chilling out at a music festival!
Loving Earth’s Acai is wild harvested from Acai palms growing in the coastal estuaries of the Tumaco region, in Colombia, where they get mineralised by the Pacific Ocean. While preserving biodiversity in the region, wild harvesting this Acai also provides a sustainable income for the indigenous Tumas people, whose daily diet consists of over 40% Acai.
First of all, the cacao pods are harvested from the trees and cracked open. The beans are then taken out and fermented. The level of fermentation affects the flavour; we do a low fermentation of about 45 degrees C, as otherwise the temperatures can get quite high, which affects the structure of the nutrients. The main thing that Loving Earth does differently to other chocolate makers is that we don't roast the raw cacao beans before we process them. The standard procedure in the chocolate industry is to roast the raw cacao, which helps bring out the flavour. It removes a lot of the microbiological contamination they might contain, but it also removes some of the valuable antioxidants contained within. What we do instead is wash them with a citric-based organic disinfectant. Afterwards, they're dried in large commercial dehydrators, at controlled temperatures, before being winnowed into nibs, which basically means taking the skin off them. Then we grind them into liquor, and finally we press them into powder and butter.
Basically, we get five products from this process. We get raw cacao beans, and because we've disinfected and washed them you can eat them - raw! We get raw cacao nibs, which are the beans without the skin. We get raw cacao liquor, which is the nibs ground into a paste. Then when we take the the liquor and put it into a very high-pressure press, which presses all the fat and butter out of it. So the end product is the raw cacao butter and then this hard cake that's milled into raw cacao powder. 1kg of liquor is about 50% fat, so when you press the liquor you get about 40% cacao butter and 60% powder. The powder retains about 10% fat content after pressing, and all the antioxidants plus a lot of the nutrients are concentrated in that powder.
We buy and import these five products, which we use to make our raw chocolate from scratch. When indigenous communities such as our friends in Peru manage to add as much value as possible at the point of origin, not only do we support agricultural industry, but also the development of that community. We get the five basic materials we need to make our chocolate, and they earn more, allowing them to further develop infrastructure to process their cacao.
Other "raw" cashews on the market are either steamed or plunged into boiling oil to remove the shell. The outer skin on Loving Earth's cashews are removed by hand using a traditional technique by the families who grow them on the island of Flores in Indonesia.
This results in a vastly superior product and more money going back into these small scale farming communities on Flores, as we pay a considerable premium for these artisan produced raw cashews.
Our Maqui Berry Powder is obtained from freeze-drying and milling the frozen 100% pure Maqui berry fruit.
The Maqui fruit is obtained from an indigenous Chilean plant known as the Maqui or Chilean Wineberry Tree (Aristotelia chilensis).The berries are then washed and frozen at a minimum of -35 degrees C, before being crushed, pureed and having their seeds removed. Finally, the fruit is freeze-dried and ground into powdered form.
All ingredients conform to E.U. and FDA food laws and regulations.
Harvested through a development project in Uzbekistan where 150,000 fruit and nut trees have been planted over the last five, years these cherries are helping to restore badly a degraded and eroded landscape and uplift the standard of living of the local hill communities.
Loving Earth's raw organic White Mulberries are grown in Uzbekistan, where traditional harvest methods are used. The fruit is shaken down off the tree and then laid out to dry in the sun to encapsulate all the natural sugars.
Since we wanted to invest all aspects of Luvju with meaning, the packaging we’ve created is based around the classic heart symbol, formed by placing two of our drop-shaped logos together.
We worked for a long time to get the first compostable metalised film that’s just become available in Europe. We’ve had it laminated to a paper finish on the outside, so it’s actually 96% plant-based compostable material, and then designed a beautiful box that it all goes in with an inventive little dispenser printed on recycled board with vegetable inks.
The artwork has also had a lot of time put into it, with a unique design on the front of each box incorporating totems which reflect the spirit of each of the flavours. With Purple Luvju we’ve got a baby condor, which symbolises energy, strength and rebirth, due to the inclusion of the antioxidants.
