Food Vocab: Fruit: Less Known Brazilian Fruits - Jaboticaba, Açaí, Jaca, etc.

We all know that one of the great things about Brazil is all of the fresh fruit. It is unfairly common in Brazil for people to have mango trees, lemon trees, and guava trees growing in their own back yards. Coconuts (coco in Portuguese) are growing all around, you can buy one to drink on almost any street corner for 1 real and immediately look chicer. And if you have not experienced the unique flavor of açaí, you should…soon (it is trendy now and you can buy the juice almost anywhere in the states). It’s rich in antioxidants, and can be made into a smoothie, called a “vitamina” in Brazil -blended with milk or water, or eaten in a bowl (açaí na tigela) topped with sliced banana and granola.

And then there are the other fruits unique to Brazil, growing all around, that you might not know about, but any Brazilian does. For example, the delicious Jaboticaba berry (pictured above), which grows elegantly on (the branches!) of trees like this one I snapped growing in the state of Santa Catarina.

F.Y.I. It is also possible to make an ‘Infusion’-type alcohol with these sweet berries, by distilling them in a jar of Cachaça (Brazilian rum) for about 3 months. (If you are interested in learning to make alcohol with fresh exotic fruit, definitely send me an email!)

And then there is “Jaca” (Jack Fruit, in English) which tastes good but notoriously smells terrible.

jaca%20(blog) Food Vocab: Fruit: Less Known Brazilian Fruits Jaboticaba, Açaí, Jaca, etc.

Jaca, or Jackfruit, originally comes from India and Southeast Asia, where it was cultivated up to 6,000 years ago. Now it is commonly found in tropical climates throughout the world, including tropical regions of Brazil. This fruit grows on a jaqueira, a jackfruit tree, which can reach up to twenty meters in height. The interesting thing about jaca trees is that they produce both male and female flowers. The jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the word. The fruits grow from the trunk and can weigh up to thirty-six kilograms. The inside of the jackfruit is edible, which has a sweet, slimy taste.

And by far the most common fruit that I see growing naturally all around Brazil is the guava. There are guava trees everywhere, the guavas that grow on them are small and soft, sometimes a bit meely, but good for a snack. You can pick them right off the tree and eat them like an apple, skin and everything. The inside pink and sweet. The only thing is that sometimes a guava may have little holes in it, I’ve seen people still eat them like this with no qualms, but i wouldn’t, because the little holes mean that the guava has already been caved through by small insects, which I’m sure are full of protein, but i just think it’s a little off-putting to knowingly eat infested fruit like that. Guavas are called goiabas in Brazil, and the trees that they grow on are called goiabeiras. The insects that are known to infest guavas people just call “bichos de goiaba.“

al tawareg guava kuava hookah tobacco Food Vocab: Fruit: Less Known Brazilian Fruits Jaboticaba, Açaí, Jaca, etc.

mentirinhas Food Vocab: Fruit: Less Known Brazilian Fruits Jaboticaba, Açaí, Jaca, etc.

hahaha hilarious

A traditional Brazilian snack called goiabada is like a sweet guava paste. It is typically eaten with Brazilian cheese, queijo de minas (from the state of Minas Gerais) and the two make a fantastic combination when eaten together. Goiabada is most commonly served on special occasions like holidays.