One of the side-effects of the recent switch to organics is that I’m starting to try (where possible) to only eat fruits currently in season. Since I was 6 I’d been chomping down on an apple during the day without ever really questioning it. Those days gone, and a regime change is a regime change; like it or not, soon after the last fresh local apple disappeared from markets a couple of months ago, I embarked on a whole new journey of fruit discovery.

Enter the Achacha.

A couple of weekends ago we were cruising the monthly morning Growers Markets at Pyrmont (making the most of the abundance of free samples the December outing seemed to be blossoming with) when we came across a stall handing out the odd little orange-coloured fruits by the bagful. Given that free food should rarely be turned down (especially at the growers market), we dived into a couple of them…

Wooah… flavour explosion. So sold, right away.

Normally whenever someone hands me an odd-looking tropical fruit, I bite into it, it’s sorta sweet, sorta ok, but I don’t really warm to it right away.

Not the Achacha.

After chomping into a couple of these little suckers, I already felt like I’d been munching on them daily forever. A very unique flavour, but one which was somehow so familiar and comforting without just being the sugar hit you’d expect of many small tropical fruits.

But what does it taste like?

The closest thing I can compare the flavour to is possibly the Mangosteen – if you’ve ever been around south-east asia you’ve probably run into those at some stage. Still, the Achacha isn’t quite like those either – it’s smaller, more delicate, and to my tongue, not as sweet (nor messy) and certainly a lot easier to get into.

Originally grown in the jungles of Bolivia, the Achacha seems to have found its Australian home up in Queensland (Burdekin region), and fortunately for us, they seem to be starting a bit of a push to get the word out about these delicious little bundles of orange joy.

They’re in season from December to February, so do keep a lookout over the summer for them. Small, shiny, bright orange balls about the size of a golf ball. Apparently you can get them at a couple of places at the Flemington markets, though I’m sure many quality fruit places which specialize in tropical fruits will start stocking them this season too.

Check out the Achacha website for all the info on where to get them, how to eat them, and a few pretty delicious sounding recipes. (One of the first things I thought when I tried them was how nice they’d taste in a cocktail!)

But just be careful – if you manage to get hold of a bag full, please keep them well hidden from me if you know what’s good for you…

… oh and one final thought : check out the craziest advertising I’ve ever seen produced for a fruit, ever. I can see what they’re trying to say, but the level of over-the-top is verging on too much when you’re talking about fruit, right?

The Plug :