Jamun

Syzygium cumini · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

Jamun (Syzygium cumini), also called Java plum, black plum, jambolan, jambul or Indian blackberry, is an oval, deep purple-black fruit of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), the same genus as the clove. Sweet, sharply astringent and staining the tongue a vivid violet, it is one of the defining fruits of the Indian summer — eaten with a rub of salt, pressed into juice, and central to Ayurveda.

Picking a good onedrag

UnderripeOverripe

Purple, firmSweet-tart with a real astringent grip. Morton's fix is the Indian one: prick the fruit, rub it with a little salt and leave it an hour, or soak it in salt water. Otherwise cook it into chutney, pickle or jam, where the pucker earns its keep.Salt it

ColourPurple with a crimson shoulder

SqueezeFirm, only just yields at the tip

SmellFaint, fresh, barely sweet

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

81%

Usable yield

3 g of pulp · one oblong seed, 19% of the fruit

3.7 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Preparing