Acai berries

"The iPad of berries. You don't actually need it, but if you don't have it you're made to feel like you're missing out." The Guardiani

I have had açai (pronounced asseye!) in mind as a potential blog post for some time, so when David, having noticed an ad for a yoghurt with acai asked me what it was, I thought I would finally 'do' it. For I wasn't absolutely sure myself, other than having noticed it everywhere in health food type things - or at least as if it was a health food.

The first curious thing was, that when we visited the supermarkets today (all three) with me intending to take photos of acai products, I couldn't see any. So I wondered whether it had gone out of fashion. But then I don't think I was looking in the right place, because I also wasn't really sure what acai was, and therefore where to find it - in cereals, yoghurts, drinks, smoothies? Well as it turns out yes - potentially in all three, but either I wasn't looking in the right place, or they were out of stock, or out of favour.

So first of all, what exactly is it? Well it's a berry that grows on a palm tree that is native to the Amazon basin. For some Amazonian people there it represents around 40% of their diet. It is also the most valuable cash crop for the area. It doesn't travel well so we don't find it fresh here - you can buy it frozen, mostly as pulp, or as a powder - if you want pure acai that is. Though you never know. Australian farmers are a pretty enterprising lot, so for all I know somebody has an acai plantation somewhere up north. I had a quick look but it seems not, though you can buy the plants and grow them yourself. Mostly though people just buy it in something that contains it. The other thing to note is that around 60-80% of the berry is a large seed. It wasn't quite clear whether the seed was crunched up too or whether they only used the fleshy bit around the seed.

It became popular in 2004 when it was being promoted for weight loss and a series of other illnesses such as diabetes and cancer, and also to improve sexual virility! None of these have been proved but it is still popular. Well it's one of those purple foods about which I wrote a long time ago, isn't it? It is certainly promoted as a super food, although there is, as yet, no evidence to support that. And it's expensive - which probably makes it doubly desirable. But other fruit contains more nutrients.

One of the most popular manifestations is the acai bowl - a subdivision of the breakfast bowl. There was a mildly amusing and informative article on the breakfast bowl in the Guardian that I came across in the course of writing this post. Check it out here. Reading it reminded me that I had indeed seen this on a menu recently - and lo and behold, there in Second Home in Eltham is an Acai Bowl - vegan, gluten free and dietary fibre (at least I think that is what DF stands for). It features in their Healthy body, healthy mind section. It will set you back $15.90 or $18.90 with their homemade 'crunchy toasted granola'. The dish is described as an "acai berry smoothie bowl, topped with blueberries, pomegranate, brazil nut, banana, strawberry, coconut and bee pollen.". I am not singling out this particular café - it's just that I had their menu to hand. I am sure that it is a very typical offering in just about every Melbourne café that does breakfast. So a breakfast bowl is a dish of a thick smoothie topped with tempting nuts and berries and things - indeed whatever you like to put on it really. The Huffington Post suggests peanut butter. As the Guardian article points out - you would probably get more nutrients out of a bowl of oats topped with fresh fruit and yoghurt. Though if you only have an acai bowl in a café every now and then - where's the harm? That's what cafés and restaurants are for isn't it? To eat something different to what you would eat at home. And they do look pretty.

So finally - is it just healthy or is it tasty too? Well apparently it is indeed tasty. Another delicious tropical fruit to add to the list. One description I found of its taste was "It has a rich and slightly tart but sweet flavour like a raspberry or a blackberry, maybe with a hint of wine-making grape with an aftertaste similar to bitter dark chocolate." Others said they couldn't taste the chocolate although it did crop up here and there. Another was "sort of sour, kind of like cranberry meets pomegranate meets blueberry." What I got from my browsing was tart - and mostly a pleasurable experience. Maybe I should try some acai yoghurt. They have some in Coles.