AÇAÍ DO BRASIL       

  Welcome to our unique acai info website 

We are providing a ‘one-stop-shop’ for people interested in acai from Brazil.

Here follows a short intro to the most exciting and deliciously refreshing beverage on our planet. The health & nutritional benefits of this Brazilian smoothie / milkshake ingredient are already legendary and more are being discovered every day.

For those of you already familiar with the acai berry, have a look at our other pages. See 'Find Acai' to find acai suppliers, so the ‘uninitiated’ can have a short intro.

Until recently, only visitors to Copacabana or Ipanema beach in Brazil had heard of - and if adventurous enough - tasted açaí (pronounced ah-sah-yee). The juice bars and the fashionable beach and surf scene there have taken to the acai pulp in a big way.

Acai originates from the Amazon delta in the north of Brazil, where the indigenous population consume more acai than milk. It is made from the berry of the Açaízeiro palm (Euterpe Olerácea). The purple flesh is separated from the large stone at its centre (the acai berry is 90% stone and only 10% fruit-pulp) and the resulting pulp is mixed with other fruits and juices to produce a smoothie like no other.

Instrumental in that leap of açaí from Belém in the North to Rio in the South, was Carlos Gracie, the great-grandson of Scottish immigrants from Dumfries, who was born in Belém in 1902. In 1922 the Gracies moved to Rio and Carlos opened Brazil's first Jiu Jitsu academy. He had grown up with açaí. Carlos encouraged all his Jiu Jitsu students to drink it. The Jiu Jitsu boys became pin-ups because of their healthy physiques and everyone wanted to know what elixir they were drinking. Eventually Rio's surfers became fans, and gradually acai juice crossed over to become part of beach culture. By the early 1990s, no juice bar could exist without selling it. In juice bar Bibi, many athletes, bodybuilders, health & fitness gurus and other famous    
açaí fans have left their signed photographs in appreciation.

This site should awaken your craving for açaí – if you’re not hooked already – ENJOY!