Show most people a bag of goji and you get the squint. Then: "raisins?" Sometimes it's cranberries. Fair enough, really. They're little, they're reddish, they're wrinkly and they come dried in a bag, so your brain just fills in the gap for you.
They're neither, though.
Once you've had a few side by side you won't mix them up again, so here's what goji actually is, how it's different in the mouth, and what to do with a bag once you've got it home.
So what are they?
Dried fruit, off the goji plant. Lycium barbarum is the posh name. You'll spot wolfberry on some packets too (makes them sound like they bite, they don't) and in Chinese they're gou qi zi. The plant itself? Scrubby woody bush. Not glamorous. Most of the goji that ends up in the UK comes from Ningxia, a region up in north west China that's known for growing it.
They get picked in late summer, once they've gone a deep orange red, and then dried whole until they shrink right down into those little red ovals. That's pretty much the whole process. Good goji should be fruit, dried, and nothing else.
In China nobody thinks of them as a trend. They've been a kitchen cupboard thing there for ages. Think of the half-used bag of sultanas at the back of your nan's cupboard. That level of ordinary. A handful goes in the soup and nobody says a word.
First bite
Chewier than you'd think. That's the first thing. Firmer than a raisin, more like a dried cherry that nobody's bothered to sugar.
Then it's sweet. Not syrupy, there's a bit of tang behind it, and right at the very end something slightly savoury. I've heard people compare it to sun-dried tomato. Bit of a stretch? Probably. I can see where they're coming from, mind.
Raisins are basically sweets with a skin on, let's be fair. Goji's calmer than that, and nowhere near as sugary.
And dried cranberries? Much sharper on their own, which is why most of the ones in UK supermarkets have sugar added. Without it they'd turn your face inside out. Goji berries don't need that kind of help.
Here's the bit people don't expect: soak them. A few minutes in warm water and they're a different thing altogether, plump and soft and juicy, with the sweetness pushed right to the front. Loads of people in China eat them like that, and if you've never had goji before I'd start there.
Telling them apart on a plate
Bit of a party trick, this one. Tip a few of each onto a white plate somewhere with decent light.
Goji berries are the long thin ones, more of an oval than a ball, like a tiny red rugby ball, and they're an orangey sort of red. Raisins are rounder and much darker, dark brown going on black, and they squash flat when you press one. Dried cranberries are usually the shiny ones, deep red, often a bit sticky from the added sugar, and flatter, like they've been sat on.
Once you've seen them next to each other, that's it. You won't get them muddled again.
Three easy ways to use them
No recipe book needed, and none of these take longer than boiling the kettle.
In hot water or green tea
Easiest one going. A small pinch, ten berries or so, in a mug. Hot water over the top (it doesn't need to be boiling) or straight into a green tea if that's more your thing. Give it three, four minutes. I'd actually watch, it's oddly satisfying. One by one they fatten up and sink, and the water goes this pale gold and picks up a faint sweetness.
Don't you dare tip the berries down the sink at the end. Eat them. Best bit by far.
The proper Chinese version has dried red dates in it too, also called jujube. Tear two or three open, add your pinch of goji, pour hot water over the lot in a mug or a little teapot and give it five to ten minutes. Soft, sweet, a bit fruity, no caffeine. On a cold evening it's lovely.
On porridge or yoghurt
Two ways to go. Soak them in a bit of warm water first, five to ten minutes, drain, scatter. Or just chuck them into the porridge while it's cooking and let the pan do the softening for you.
Yoghurt's different. I'd always soak them for yoghurt, because dry goji on something cold stays pretty chewy. Some people love that. Some really don't. Try it both ways and see.
Bit of honey and a few chopped nuts on top if you're feeling fancy.
Straight out of the bag
Nothing to prepare. Grab a handful whenever you'd normally grab raisins or nuts. A bag in the desk drawer is never a bad shout, and if you tip a few almonds or pumpkin seeds in with them it turns into more of a proper snack.
Then there's savoury cooking, which is where most people raise an eyebrow. In Chinese kitchens goji goes into chicken soup or pork broth for the last ten or fifteen minutes, for a gentle sweetness and a bit of colour. Congee too, the soft rice porridge eaten all over China. A small handful stirred in near the end does it.
A sweet red berry in soup sounds wrong. It isn't.
Buying them, and keeping them
Colour first. You want bright red to deep red. Some difference from berry to berry is normal, nothing to worry about. Brown or dull is what you don't want, because that usually means old, or kept badly somewhere along the line.
Then give the bag a squeeze if you're allowed. The berries should shift about loosely. A few stuck together, fine. The whole bag fused into one brick? They've had moisture at some point, and I'd leave them on the shelf.
Once it's open, sealed container, cool and dry, out of the sun. A cupboard that isn't next to the oven. Kept like that they'll last for months, and in a hot summer some people pop them in the fridge, which doesn't do them any harm.
Oh, and rinse them before you use them. Quick one, cold water, sieve, a few seconds under the tap. They're grown outdoors and dried, so there can be a bit of dust from drying and packing, and a rinse sorts that out.
What they're not
Goji berries have had a lot of hype online over the years, and plenty of it has gone way too far.
They're food. Nice food! But food. Not a medicine, and not going to fix anything. In China they're traditionally eaten for general wellbeing, as part of an ordinary diet, and that's as far as we'd go. If social media has made you big promises about them, pinch of salt.
Serious bit now, and please don't skip it. If you're on regular medication, blood thinners in particular, talk to your doctor or pharmacist first before you start having goji every day.
Give them a go
Next time someone picks up a bag and says raisins, you'll know better. Hand them one and tell them to chew it. Or better still, drop a few in hot water and let them watch what happens.
We sell dried goji berries at Vita Herbal Nutrition, along with red dates and plenty of other traditional ingredients if you want to try the tea version properly.