your eyes out. Don’t they turn as red as a Brazilian cherry when you do?
Fruits from Southern & Central South America
Home to prairies, savannas, and wetlands, the vast area south of the Amazon and east of the Andes gave us plenty of delicious Brazilian fruits too.
Pineapples are from the Paraná Basin (where the Iguazu Falls are located), an area between southwestern Brazil, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina. Ironically, though, both Costa Rica and the Philippines grow more of the fruit every year.
While we love all things pineapple, the Portuguese word for it, abacaxi, has become shorthand for a particularly thorny situation (together, oddly, with pepino, i.e. cucumber).
16. Jabuticabas aka Brazilian Grapes
These white-pulp Brazilian berries are unique in that they sprout straight from the tree trunk — often covering it entirely! The fruit jabuticaba bursts in your mouth and turns into tempting liqueurs, jellies, and even wines.
As with pineapples, the word jabuticaba has acquired a figurative meaning too: it refers to laws, rules, and (usually bad) practices, chiefly in the realm of politics, that occur only in Brazil.
Indigenous peoples named mangabas, describing it as “an edible delight”. Although orchards have been picking up in recent years, the fruit is still more consistently harvested in the wild, especially in the tiny northeastern state of Sergipe. Its native range, however, spans Paraguay and eastern Peru as well, mostly in dry areas.
Pequis, which also grow in Bolivia and Paraguay, are said to be a love-it-or-hate-it sort of fruit. Its spiky core, oily texture, and intense smell and flavor are indeed pretty divisive. Yet folks throughout central Brazil are obsessed with them, cooking both rice and chicken with pequi.
Foreign Fruits Brazil is a Leading Producer of
Brazil has the third-largest fruit output in the world! And while we’re aware that coffee wouldn’t mind topping this section, it’ll have to give way to a few sweeter items. After all, hardly anyone cares about the cherries wrapped around coffee beans…
Forget Orange County and picture Orange Country. Bear in mind that 60% of the next glass of orange juice you drink will likely have come from Brazil.
We grow almost twice as many oranges as China, which ranks second among global producers. But the impressive presence of Brazilian oranges on the global market owes to the fact that we export about 98% of the fruit harvested within our borders.
Papayas are probably from southern Mexico, but Brazil went on to become the second-largest producer of the fruit (behind India). They’re a beloved breakfast fruit (and taste even better when topped with granola). Interestingly, unripe papaya preserves are quite popular in the countryside (and with sweet-toothed grandmas).
Granted, unlike some Central American states, Brazil was never a typical “banana republic”. Yet bananas are the second most consumed fruit countrywide and are a major national symbol. Carmen Miranda can vouch!
The fact that the Brazilian version to the novelty song “Yes! We Have No Bananas” is the all-time classic “Yes! We Do Have Bananas” speaks volumes on that as well. And that’s not even the only Brazilian song about the fruit.
Brazil is the sixth-greatest producer of avocados worldwide. But since Mexico’s output is around ten times bigger, this isn’t the main highlight here.
Rather, it’s how we eat it: never in savory dishes. We either blend it into a smoothie or mash it and top it with oat flour. Apparently, that’s how a few Asian nations (e.g. Vietnam and the Philippines) like their avocados too.
While the global mango market is dominated by India, Brazil ranks seventh among its largest producers. More importantly, mangos are Brazil’s top fruit export. The Portuguese introduced them in the country somewhere around the 1500s, so they could just as well feature in the section below.
Brazilian Fruits by Naturalization
It might be clear by now that Brazil is a fantastic environment for growing virtually anything. The following fruits, first brought over in the colonial area, adapted so seamle