Strange Fruit

Now that most of the ducks are lining up for the sea-buckthorn, expect to see more research, such as this Finnish investigation, into the vagaries related to the berries’ health benefits. For further reading on the emerging buckthorn berries, visit Purdue’s Center for New Crops database, and, of course, Wikipedia has something to say on the subject.

This is one to keep your eyes on, as I’m sure we’ll see more on buckthorn berries in the coming months.

Going Goji

Of late, the tiny mountainous fruit goji berry, also known as wolfberry, demonstrates that the superfood world has not taken some sort of strangely Amazonian-Ptolemaic turn and begun to solely rotate around South America.

Although the term wolfberry was, until recently, a more-common term for these Tibetan treasures, “goji berry” has surfaced of late, particularly in the health-food segment (perhaps as a derivation of gouqizi the Chinese name for the fruit). The little red berries produced by the Lycium barbarum and L. chinense plants have long been associated with traditional Chinese medicine and have a stellar reputation in Asia—and for good reason. Research shows the fruit contain 19 amino acids (including all essential amino acids), 21 trace minerals (including germanium, a trace mineral rarely found in food), lots of antioxidants (including beta carotene, and zeaxanthin), lots of vitamin C, some B-complex vitamins and some E, beta-sitosterol, fatty acids, alpha-cyperone, and solavetivone (an antifungal and antibacterial compound), physalin (inhibits leukemia) and betaine.

Much ado surrounds these little berries. They look to deliver much in the way of healthful characteristics, but let’s see how different ingredients fare under the sometimes-harsh realities of processing. Considering some claims of goji related to cancer, I would bet yuan to yóu tiáo that studies will prove forthcoming. I also look forward to more-standardized availability of fresh product. A good percentage of available goji these days is dried, which undoubtedly compromises the integrity of the fruit’s flavor.

In the meantime, “goji” on the label—likely in minimally processed products like some types of juices—will still garner consumer attention even without clinical proof of efficacy.

Oh Açaí

Over the last few years, açaí (“ah-sigh-ee”) berries have gone from not even on the radar to super-hot.

The berry has a flavor reminiscent of a cross between berries and chocolate. Some juices I’ve sampled have a very pleasant, bright-raspberryesque flavor with a darker background note—but not quite cocoa.