Meet the Suppliers: No. 3 - Brazilian Flavours

I was interested in this article by Andrew Purvis in Sunday's Observer Food Magazine which looked at the various natural produce of Brazil and weighed up whether any change in the world's eating and drinking habits might help save the rainforests. One of the crops mentioned as a potential saviour was the highly sustainable acai fruit. The smoothie company Innocent have recently introduced the acai into its range, and as Purvis wrote:

Irrigated twice a day by the tidal waters of the Amazon, the açai tree requires little maintenance. Prune it occasionally and keep the grove free of weeds and disease, and it will keep producing fruit - eight to 12 baskets in two hours of picking, from a plot no bigger than a large suburban garden. If managed properly, an acre of rainforest will yield 14 tonnes of berries a year.

It is a high-income, low-impact crop for sure, but that is not the only reason it appears in Innocent's portfolio. Açai is also the ultimate superfruit, its reddish skin containing anthocyanins (plant chemicals that neutralise the 'free radicals' associated with disease and ageing) and other antioxidants. Weight for weight, açai contains 60 per cent more antioxidants than the acclaimed pomegranate, 2.7 times more than blueberries and over six times more than strawberries. Beneath its skin is a yellowish fat, making it rich in calories.

This was all particularly educational to me as recently, more out of a wish to celebrate the cultural diversity of Yorkshire than through any sound commercial decision, I had taken a supply of "Brazilian Flavours" jams which included Acai in two of its flavours, paired with both raspberry and banana respectively.

It hasn't exactly flown off the shelves of the cafe or our online store, but now that I know so much more about the provenance and nutritional and environmental benefits of this strange fruit, I will feel much more confident in recommending it to customers. Brazilian Flavours also assert that their Cashew Fruit jam is particularly good with Wensleydale cheese, so that could also be one unusual special sandwich on a future Yorkshire Deli Cafe menu.

Read more about the story of Brazilian Flavours here, or better still visit our online store and try the jams for yourself, and save your own little bit of rainforest into the bargain!