Karonda

Carissa carandas · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

Karonda (Carissa carandas), also called Bengal currant, Christ's thorn, karanda or karaunda, is a small, glossy, astringent berry of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae) native to the Indian subcontinent. Picked hard and pink-white it is intensely sour and mouth-drying, the classic fruit of Indian pickles, chutneys and preserves; left to ripen it darkens to a sweet-tart deep purple.

Picking a good onedrag

UnderripeOverripe

Blue-black ripeTurned glossy purple-black right through, juicy, sweet-tart and much less puckery. The sweeter types are eaten out of hand at this stage; sharper cultivars still want stewing with sugar.Buy it

Skin colourTurned blue-black to deep purple, glossy right through

The squeezeGiving slightly, skin taut, heavy for its size

Stem endClean dry scar, the berry parting at a touch

SmellSweet dark berry, a little grape behind it

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

What one gives you

100%

Usable yield

6 g whole ripe berry · thin skin, and the 2-8 small flat seeds assumed swallowed with the pulp — no published refuse figure exists

6 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Preparing