Acai berries and acai juice made from the berries come from acai palm (also spelled aqai). This palm is indigenous to South and Central America, growing mostly in wetlands.

Acai plants are fast growing palms, growing to 20 to 30 meters with leaves reaching the size of 2 meters long.  They are farmed for both the berries and their large leafs.

The berry of the acai palm is a little, wine colored fruit, that’s around a inch in size. They look much like grapes and grow in bunches of a few hundred. In the Amazon, the berries are harvested for food, were they are a important part of the locals diet.

The juice from the acai berry is used to make many drinks, including sodas and liqueurs. It’s also added to ice cream and other deserts.

The rest of the acai plant also has many uses. The palm leaves are used to make hats, baskets, roofs, brooms and mats. The acai seeds when eaten as they are a great source of natural fatty acids.

Acai berry extracts, made into a supplement have been used for many years for losing weight, boosting energy and as a antioxidants.

In the 1940’s researchers and doctors started to observe that people who ate acai on a regular basis, had less health problems. In the 80’s, the frozen berries were first introduced to North America, the California area. They quickly became popular, used in smoothies, drinks and ice creams.

In current years, acai has become popular all across the US and Canada. It has started to make its way to Europe, where it have been positively received.

Recently, medical studies have started to explore the health benefits of acai. Doctor Andrew Schauss started the research in this area and