While many Americans might be familiar with black chokeberry plants as an attractive landscape or lawn shrub, few are aware the aronia berries are one of the healthiest foods that can be grown. Aronia/black chokeberries are native to the Midwest and east coast of the United States. When our country was founded, Native Americans used berries and willow bark because of their medicinal qualities. They also ground aronia and other berries in with dried meat to make pemmican. Early settlers found the unsweetened aronia bitter and instead focused on growing sweeter berries and fruits. Aronia berries are like chocolate containing high flavonoids, but require sweeting to taste. Native plants did not produce large volumes of fruit, but Polish hybrids have been developed over the past century resulting in Aronia become Poland’s number one cash crop. Poland produces more aronia than all other countries combined, but aronia is making a strong comeback in the Midwest. A new cultivar variety of aronia berry, named Viking, which is also a relative of apples and rose bushes produces an average of between 20 and 30 pounds of berries per mature plant and shows unmatched potential to the agricultural and nutricuetical industries. The food industry has also begun to recognize aronia combined with other berries or other sweetened foods make them both healthier and tastier.