A sparkling organic maté drink with açaí and blueberry, in a can, from Mojo Maté. Darker, fruitier and rounder than the original.
Açaí is worth being straight about. It is the fruit of a palm, Euterpe oleracea, that grows in the flooded forests of the Amazon estuary, and it is a genuine staple food in the Brazilian north — eaten savoury, with fish and manioc, long before anyone in Europe had heard of it. Two things about it are usually left out. First, it is not sweet: fresh açaí tastes earthy, fatty and faintly of unsweetened chocolate, and almost every açaí product sold outside Brazil is heavily sweetened to make it palatable to people expecting a berry. Second, the fruit is almost entirely stone — around 80 to 90% of each one is seed, and only a thin layer of pulp is edible, which is why it is expensive and why it is nearly always sold as a pulp or powder rather than whole.
On the “superfood” framing. Açaí is rich in anthocyanins, and its antioxidant capacity measured in a test tube is genuinely high. That is where the enthusiasm came from, and it is also where the evidence largely stops: clinical trials in humans are few, small and inconclusive, and the EU authorises no health claims for it. It is a good, interesting fruit that was marketed extraordinarily well. Blueberry, alongside it, brings the acidity and the recognisable fruit note that açaí on its own does not have.
The maté underneath is Ilex paraguariensis, a South American holly, and it supplies the caffeine and a grassy bitterness that keeps a fruit-led drink from turning syrupy.
Honestly: this is a sweetened, carbonated soft drink made with organic ingredients and no synthetic flavourings. Nicer than a cola, and not a health product. It contains caffeine — not for children, and not late in the evening.
Serve very cold. Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.
Mojo Maté
ORIGINAL MATE
ORIGINAL MATE
ORIGINAL MATE
