Four ingredients, blended cold: açaí puree, strawberries, banana, coconut water. Nothing else goes in.
- Açaí, a small dark palm fruit from the Amazon.
- Strawberries and banana for body and sweetness.
- Coconut water as the base, not dairy.
- Blended to order in the kitchen.
How it is made
The açaí comes as a thick puree, packed and frozen not long after harvest, because the fruit itself spoils within about a day of picking. That is why açaí travelled the world as pulp and never as fresh fruit. Here it goes into the blender with strawberries, banana and coconut water, which loosens the puree without milk or yoghurt.
How it tastes
Dense and cold, closer to a spoonable bowl than a juice. The açaí is earthy and faintly bitter, a little like dark cocoa and blackberry at once, and the strawberry and banana round that edge off. Coconut water keeps it light rather than creamy, so the finish stays clean.
Good to know
Açaí palms grow wild in the floodplains of the Amazon, where the fruit is harvested by climbing the tree and cutting the bunch by hand. In the Brazilian state of Pará it is eaten savoury, with cassava flour and dried shrimp, not sweet. The sweet version is the export.
