The leading brand of products pressed from Montmorency cherries. No preservatives or other added ingredients.
The CherryActive Story
Millions of Montmorency cherries are harvested, pitted and pressed every year to bring CherryActive to athletes and Olympic squads all over the world. Developed for the elite and the everyday, CherryActive is the natural catalyst for all-round health, wellbeing, performance and recovery. But Until CherryActive launched in 2006, there was nowhere in the UK to buy Montmorency cherry concentrate.
John Carey
Founder and Director
John discovered nutrient-rich cherry concentrate while in the US suffering terribly with gout. On his return to England, he made plans to import cherry concentrate from the Michigan orchard that had relieved his agony. He supplied friends initially and then enlightened the sporting community with its power to help performance and recovery. Popularity rocketed and the product range evolved. Trusted and enjoyed by thousands of customers, every batch of CherryActive is carefully manufactured using the finest plant-based ingredients and avoiding excessive heat, preservatives and other chemicals, to protect nutrients and taste.
John has zero regrets about dumping a successful career as a financing manager to start the cherry concentrate revolution. He uses CherryActive every day, cycles and runs with a club (and no longer suffers from gout).
Back in the noughties...
CherryActive's Founder, John, was always a keen sportsman: a black belt at judo, marathon runner and mountain biker. One morning, he woke up with excruciating pain in his toe – so painful that he couldn’t even stand the weight of a bedsheet on his foot. This was John’s first gout attack and lasted over ten days. With rest, ice and painkillers, the inflammation slowly subsided. However, the gout returned and he suffered regular attacks every few months. Restricting his diet to low-purine foods was miserable and futile.
John had none of the usual risk factors associated with gout (e.g. purine-rich diet, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, dehydration). Born prematurely, his damaged kidneys lead to uric acid build up and gout flare ups. His doctor prescribed life-long medication, which helped to lower blood uric acid levels, but John suffered dizzy side effects and was not keen to take drugs indefinitely.
A few years after his first painful episode, John was in the US on business. He suffered another gout attack and one of his American colleagues told him of a friend in Michigan who swore by the cherries from a local orchard.
Keen to try anything, John visited the orchards and took the juice from freshly pressed cherries. The next day his gout pain had totally subsided. He tried to buy cherry juice back in the UK but was disappointed to find no stockists. He contacted the farm he had visited and arranged to import some Montmorency cherry concentrate. A few friends sampled it, and he was soon getting regular orders from friends of friends too – not just for gout, for an all-round health boost.
John put his faith in cherries, quit his finance job and his company started trading on January 1st 2006. CherryActive was born! The next few years saw sales rise quickly on his website and through the health stores he approached. He also developed a freeze-dried cherry powder with practically zero calories for customers who wanted the benefit of his cherries without the fruit sugar.
Research is key to our story, and we have commissioned multiple research projects to measure the power of the humble yet mighty tart cherry.
John had noticed that as well as reducing the incidence and severity of his gout attacks, CherryActive helped him recover after long runs and judo training. In 2008, he approached London Irish Rugby team, who trained nearby. The rugby players found similar benefits, which enabled them to get more out of their training week.
In 2009, London South Bank University performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with CherryActive to investigate evidence to back up the rugby players’ claim that cherry concentrate was behind a boost in recovery rates. The results were impressive and word spread fast. More teams wanted CherryActive in their players’ diets.
Some of the country’s leading academic institutions performed further studies on CherryActive, demonstrating that it could help improve sleep patterns, reduce uric acid levels and reduce inflammation. Another test showed that a single glass of diluted juice contained more antioxidants that 23 portions of fruit and vegetable.
An evidence-backed boost to health and athletic performance
