5 December 2013

BAOBAB Fruit Powder (Eden Project) [review by @NLi10]

A while back a mysterious package arrived through the post from the Eden Project. This is Baobab fruit powder, one of the more recent super foods, and one that can be ethically sourced from African communities both promoting 'fair trade' and the use of local natural resources for money. This is all good.


The fruit is also pollinated by bats, which automatically makes it cool in my book.  It's essentially a very high source of vitamin C and other essentials that we don't produce naturally.  The back of the packet gave links to recipes, but these were a little vague and not things that I would ordinarily make (smoothies and soups) so I would struggle to test it.


So I sprinkled it over cereal as suggested.  In my infinite wisdom I decided that they had sent quite a lot so it must be used in similar quantities to protein powders.  This wasn't accurate.


It goes a bit gloopy.


What fresh hell is this?! Fizzy Weetabix?

 I ate it, mainly because I didn't want to waste it, but the powder was a lot stronger than I'd anticipated. The cereal companies haven't tried to do many cereals with orange in them for good reason...

Since then I've learned that if you do just sprinkle it on a cereal then it's actually rather pleasant (I had it on my cornflakes just this morning!).  The trick is to sprinkle it on top, then mix the cereal, then pour the milk on.  I'm not sure that I've had a massive amount of health benefits, but it's livened up the mornings a little.  Like a natural version of those vitamin supplements that people seemed to be addicted to in the 80s.

If used correctly and in the right kinds of foods I can see this working well.  They suggested drinks and soups being the main uses, but as I rarely make those from scratch it's hard to do.  And when you do add it to something like Heinz if you do it right it looks identical (but tastes zingier).

If you think that you are lacking in any of the things that this natural powder provides then I'd suggest getting hold of some.  You can order it direct from the eden project, and I'm sure health shops sell it too.

With any luck I'll report back on this in my end of year reviews revue and let you know where else I've managed to use it to good effect.

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