Cashew apple

The cashew tree is native to north-eastern Brazil. “In the 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced it to Mozambique and coastal India, but only as a soil retainer to stop erosion on the coasts. It flourished and ran wild and formed extensive forests”².

Its “apple” is not a fruit at all. It is “a pseudofruit, actually the swollen stalk of the true fruit”, which is the nut hanging from its end². The apple is fibrous but juicy, and “in Goa, India, the apples are still trampled by foot to extract the juice for the locally famous distilled liquor”². That liquor, cashew feni, was granted a geographical indication in 2009 as a speciality of Goa³.