Brazil has abundant availability of fruits year-round, here we try to list the popular ones and the best to try, I bet you never heard of or seen these fruits before.
Açai
The fruit is a small berry, deep purple in color, and about the size of a cherry. You can have açai as a juice but it’s best served like a semi-frozen sorbet (pictured below). Most juice bars buy it as pulp and despite hundreds of sorbets eaten I’ve never actually seen the whole fruit.
Great for hot summer days on the beach when you don’t feel like eating something heavy. Açai is very rich in carbohydrates. Ask for açai com granola, banana e mel (açai with granola, banana, and honey). Be careful with your clothing as purple açai stains are notoriously difficult to remove.
Açai is also loaded with antioxidants, omega-6 & 9 fatty acids, and many other vitamins and minerals. It, therefore, becomes a great vitamin pill to sell to the overweight and under-exercised. Rich in carbohydrates it is ideal for a post-training meal but expects at least one Brazilian to tell you that açai makes you fat because of the carbohydrates.
Acerola
Contains 100 times the Vitamin C of oranges. One glass should be enough for your entire holiday. Sorry to disappoint the hypochondriacs who were about to rush out and buy acerola tablets but there is zero relation between vitamin C and the prevention of the common cold. It’s a myth.
Araça
Similar in taste to Goiaba but a little more acidic. Yellowish in color and a little smaller than a passionfruit.
Goiaba
Guava. About the size of a rock melon. Can be white, green, or yellow/orange color. Very high in vitamins A, B, and C.
Caju
The fruit from which cashew nuts come (pictured). Rather like a pepper in size and shape but the texture when you eat it is rather strange. To me, it felt a little leathery but when you bite down all the juices come flooding out. The actual nut sits atop the fruit
Graviola
Green in color like an avocado. Can be used in cooking when green or for chutneys and sauces.
Jabuticaba
Very similar in appearance to açai only its uses also extend to making wine or liquor. That is if you don’t want to eat it fresh or in a dessert.
Jaca
Slightly bigger than a Watermelon, Jaca can be one lethal green fruit when gravity takes hold. Camping under a Jaca tree laden with fruit is not a smart idea. I’ve seen them put holes in cheap rooves when they fall. The fruit is a fleshy off-white pulp. Loved by some but not by most.
Maracujá
Passionfruit. The most common is the large yellow variety. I haven’t come across the smaller purple passionfruit in Brazil but I have no doubt you could find it.
I’m either lazy or just overwhelmed by the fruits of Brazil. Below are just some I haven’t gotten around to describing yet.
- Cacau
- Cajá
- Caqui
- Carambola
- Cupuaçu
- Mangaba
- Siriguela
- Pinha
- Pitanga
- Sapotí
- Umbú
And just when you start to think you know your way around a few fruits you stumble across a biology conference where some university students are selling icecreams made out of the fruits from their region. From the Goiás Serra region alone comes:
- Brejaúba
- Buriti
- Cagaita
- Cajuzinho
- Cajá-manga
- Guabiroba
- Jatobá
- Murici
- Mutamba
- Pequi
- Taperebá
All make good icecreams.
