Strange Fruit, Part 7

Today we look at the super-hot açaí (“ah-sigh-ee”) berry. Although I’ve yet to munch a fresh version of the berry, it reportedly has a flavor reminiscent of a cross between berries and chocolate.

A juice (Bossa Nova brand) I picked up the other day at the local grocery store had a very pleasant, bright-raspberryesque flavor with a darker background note—but not quite cocoa. The ingredient statement does list “natural flavors,” so we might be in the land of acculturated, Americanized tastes here. But different—in a good way—definitely different. I’d buy it again, but would prefer a slightly sharper, less-sweet flavor. When something is too sweet (21.6 grams sugar in a 10-oz. bottle for this one), I think the potential impact for the health-food market lessens. Although they do use “organic” agave as the sweetener—reportedly, a low-glycemic option.

Other label bits of interest: use of “wild harvested” to describe “açaí juice”… Not quite sure how you “wild harvest” a juice… Probably should have been “Juice from wild-harvested açaí berries” but nobody asked me… The label also includes a definition of antioxidants (nice) and even an ORAC comparison (ORAC units per gram of fruit) bar chart between açaí (167), pomegranate (106), blueberries (32), oranges (24), apples (14) and bananas (5); on the bleeding-heart end of the scale—yes, fluffy, but increasingly important fluff, and sincerely important to some folks—we have a statement that “Every Bossa Nova you drink saves one rainforest tree” funded by the company through the Rainforest Alliance. This concludes today’s commercial. I’d like to thank the generous folks at Bossa Nova for supplying me with a lifetime supply of açaí juice… (JK... I’m not on the company’s payroll. It was just a recent exploration into açaí... Although any and all attempts to curry my favor will be met with a firm “maybe”... To follow the path we’ve been clear-cutting through this virtual oft-Amazonian landscape of strange fruit, see http://www.foodproductdesign.com/blogs/doug/?m=art&a=6ch5144019.html; for the Wiki take on açaí, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acai; also, here is also a nice—although a bit dated—paper on sustainable management of açaí palms as a move against deforestation in the Amazon: http://www.conservationandsociety.org/c_s_2-2-7weinsten-new.pdf.)

In a recent Natural Products Insider article, Paul M. Gross, Ph.D.—senior author of “Wolfberry: Natures Bounty of Nutrition and Health” and publisher of The Berry Doctor’s Journal (see http://berrydoctor.com for his online home)—notes the following about the sweet little Amazonian treasures:

“Long used among Brazilian Amazon peasants as a staple mixed with tapioca or sugar, açaí gained popularity in the United States first as a juice ‘energy’ drink and additive to smoothies. Now, its pulp powder is being applied in a variety of other consumer products and has great potential for expansion into numerous food and beverage products. Growing in panicles of several hundred individual fruits per tree, the açaí berry is dark blue and similar in size to a grape containing a large seed.

“There is only limited nutrient information available. Freeze-dried pulp powder contains 9% protein, 33% carbohydrates, 12% dietary fiber and 50% fats comprised of 38% mono- and polyunsaturated fats. Its antioxidant compounds include anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside), procyanidins, protocatechuic acid, epicatechin, gallic acid and vitamin C. At an ORAC of 34,000 µmol TE per 100 grams in freeze-dried pulp powder, it appears to be among the most antioxidant-rich edible plants.”

Gross goes on to note that although clinical studies highlighting açaí’s potential are scarce, reports have shown it might inhibit leukemia cell development in vitro, and its “rich phenolic content indicates potential benefits for all diseases that are purportedly also affected by blueberries and black raspberries, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammation, cognitive disorders, aging and age-related visual decline and bacterial infections, among others” (see http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/472/6ah169431758327.html for the full article).

As long as açaí remains an economically sustainable, viable crop for the Amazon, the little antioxidant bombs should continue to grow in popularity. And I’ll look forward to seeing more products with authentic açaí flavor hit the market.