Maqui

Aristotelia chilensis · Berry

40 pairings

Maqui (Aristotelia chilensis), also called Chilean wineberry, is a small, intensely dark-purple berry from an evergreen shrub native to the temperate rainforests of southern Chile and Argentina. Astringent and only mildly sweet, it is prized less for fresh eating than for its extraordinarily high content of dark-purple anthocyanin pigments, which has made it a marketed "superfruit."

Picking a good onedrag

UnderripeOverripe

Black and firmTart and earthy with a faint sweetness and a drying, wine-like finish. Fine raw if you like astringency, better pressed or frozen whole.Buy it

ColourAlmost black violet-purple, only a stray red one left

SqueezeFirm but yielding, juicy the moment the skin breaks

SmellDark berry and earth at the skin, a faint winey edge

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

Preparing