First one I ever tasted, honestly, wasn’t impressed, but I’m not ready to write the whole species off yet.
The Basics
Surinam cherry, Eugenia uniflora, is a shrub or small tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, the same family as our mountain apple.
Origin and Habitat
Native to the eastern coast of South America, including Brazil, Suriname, Uruguay, and Argentina, now found throughout the tropics.
What It Looks Like
Usually a shrub, sometimes grows into a small tree, with small ribbed, lantern-shaped fruit that deepens from orange to nearly black as it ripens.
Uses and Flavor
Eaten fresh or made into jams and juices, though the flavor is famously inconsistent tree to tree, from resinous and sharp to genuinely sweet.
Growing It Here
Originally from the South American east coast but found all over the tropics now. First one I ever tasted, honestly, wasn’t impressed. Sour, tart, and it reminded me of some kind of chemical you’d put in a car. The flavor apparently varies a lot tree to tree, so I wasn’t writing it off completely, and it turns out that was the right call: we later planted a whole row of them as a hedge around the tinyhouse using a variety from Adam’s place, and this one is unusually sweet, kind of like how our panama berry surprised us too, or the grumichama hedge nearby. Same species, completely different experience.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
Fruit flies are drawn to the ripe fruit here same as with most soft tropical fruit, so timely harvest matters.
Kenta’s Take
A species famous for tasting completely different from one tree to the next deserves more than one bad first impression before I judge it for good, and this hedge row proved the point.