Açaí
Euterpe oleracea · Berry
Top 10 pairings
Açaí is the small, dark-purple drupe of the açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), a tall, slender palm of the Amazon floodplains. Each fruit is almost all seed, surrounded by a thin layer of oily, low-sugar pulp that is scraped off and beaten into a thick, earthy purée — a Brazilian dietary staple long before it became a global "superfood."
Picking a good onedrag
Bloomed black-purple, hard, dryDull, weeping, winey-sour
Market freshEveryday bestThe standard basket, same rule: wash, then pasteurise or cook the pulp. Export pulp is heat-treated already; freezing alone is not the safety step.
Skin and bloomPurple-black, the bloom rubbed thin in places
Roll them in your handFirm, a few starting to cling together
Cluster and stalksStalk tips drying, most berries still on
Smell at the basketFaintly earthy, a little sweet-damp