 The Wall Street Journal - April 18, 2003 Açaí Replaces Wheatgrass In Blenders at Juice Bars By TATIANA BONCOMPAGNI Wheatgrass, protein shakes -- so 2002. At juice bars and health stores around the country, the hip new taste is açaí, (pronounced ah-sigh-EE) a grape-size, deep-purple berry that grows atop palm trees in the Brazilian jungle. Fans say the fruit (which comes to the U.S. as frozen
pulp)
not only tastes good, but also is good for you -- packed with
anthocyanins, the same antioxidants that give red wine its health
benefits. And, in a hat trick of health-bar chic, it's good for the
Amazon, too, because it's collected by local families who can earn as
much as $1,000 during the December-to-August harvest season (twice as
much as they can usually make). "It gives them income and another land
use besides cutting down the trees and raising cattle," says Chris
Kilham, who teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst. Click
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