Achacha had a great time in Berlin in February this year – take a quick trip through this event with us.

Last Friday, 2 March 2012, late at night, thieves forced entry to a large and popular fruit retailer in Sydney’s west. Approximately 90 boxes of Achachas – the store’s complete stock – were stolen. Nothing else was taken. Police are investigating.

This is a terrible crime and no joke! Clearly those involved have good taste!  Admittedly we’ve hardly been discouraging, check out how the pros do it in The Chase.

We made a final draw for all of you who have help with locations from the ‘Where to Buy’ Page’  on this website.  The final winner was picked out by culinary master and Achacha enthusiast, Jared Ingersoll.

Congratulations to Jess who spotted the fruit on John Street, Lidcombe.

Last night marked the very first Achacha dinner showing the versatility of the fruit. It was a booked out, sit-down, risk taking, seat-of-your-pants, adventurous meal prepared by Jared Ingersoll and his team from Cotton Duck Restaurant.

From the Achacha Martini Cocktail, the entrée, main courses, through to the final punctuation mark, Achacha Curd with Achacha Honey Meringue and Fruit Salad Sage Sherbert, it was a wonderful food journey full of new taste sensations.

We would highly recommend you scurry along to 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills, while some of these dishes are still on the menu.  www.danksstreetdepot.com.au

Our gratitude to Anne Warr for the photos.

This season’s last Facebook Friend’s 5 kilo box was drawn by Paula at Greenwich IGA.  The lucky person is Natasha Johnson! Natasha could you kindly contact info@achacha.com.au with your mailing address please.  Thanks to all who entered over the past months and we look forward to hearing from you all again next Achacha season.

Fruit Logistica, held annually in Berlin, is an enormous event – the biggest of its kind.  It not only is the premiere event for global fresh produce specialists to network but also  showcases the latest products available on the global market.

This year we were privileged to be nominated for the innovation award – as mentioned earlier we also had an incredible amount of interest and received a gong from the audience voters.

Juanita Gaglio has just completed an overview of the event,  including a mention of the Achacha.

Two great articles were written over the last week on using and cooking with Achacha.

The first in the Age, on the 7th of Februrary by Robin Powell, proves Melbourne is a fan of the fruit.  Thanks Melbourne!!

The second in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living, on the 14th by Gail Thomas, explains five ways to use the fruit – apart from eating it out of the skin!

Fruit Logistica, the world’s largest fruit fair, is held annually in Berlin.   With over 2,400 exhibitors, 56,000 trade visitors and kilometers of exhibition space, the event is quite mind blowing.

This year Achacha entered the acclaimed ‘Innovation Award’, which was set up to showcase innovation in the industry including anything related to fruit, from product to packaging.

We were excited to make it to the final ten, which was already an achievement.  Other entries included; the first seedless pepper, sweet quince peel, new salad packaging, a purple broccoli, a sorbet machine, a ripened green tomato and a ‘social salad network’.  Making the final ten gave us great exposure, particularly on radio and television across Europe – and we had no trouble creating a spectacle of the ‘pierce and pop’ fun way of opening the fruit. People were also interested to know is it low in sugar, the skin makes a great aftershave, smokers love it as a breath freshener, chefs use it as a pallet cleanser and other things, retailers are impressed by its long shelf life and the skin makes a nutritious, refreshing drink. So all but the seed it used.

Oh – and Achacha made it to the top 3!

The last day of January brings us to the Achacha end of month draw.  As
Danny, assisted by Joanna, from Bondi Road Fruitologist pulled out two names
we thought it only fair to celebrate the last day of the first month of 2012
with two prize winners: one goes to you Sasha Hickerson and another for you
Megan Rapp. Bravo and enjoy your Achachas. Please contact us via the web
site, thank you.

Maria Martelli, with the help of Phillip, from Martelli’s Fruit Market, Cherrybrook assisted in drawing the winner of the Oz Day 5 kilo box of Achachas. Congratulations to Lizz Robb! Lizz informs us that she has become a big Achacha fan since being introduced to it at Baroque Bistro in The Rocks, Sydney. Martelli’s, past winners of the SMH Fruit Shop of the Year, have beautiful fruit markets in Cherrybrook, Rouse Hill and Epping, and have been excellent Achacha supporters since the outset. Thank you Martelli’s!

The Achacha really is something new…well at least what other fruit can you open with a ‘pierce’ and a ‘pop’?  Like opening an egg with one hand, lets show you how to open an Achacha the easy way!

Achacha from achacha on Vimeo.

Tank Restaurant and Achacha joined forces recently to showcase the Achacha tropical fruit.  People warmed up or chilled out, rather, on the refreshing and very popular Ali-cha-cha cocktail created by Tank’s creative staff.  The evening finished with his now famous Achacha Crema when grown men were seen hiding and licking their plates!  In between delicious morsels kept flowing from the kitchen. Thank you Alastair McLeod, chef and co-owner at Tank Restaurant. We highly recommend a visit!

www.tankrestaurant.com.au

The Achacha is exported to European clients by air in 5 kilo boxes. In the You-tube clip BUD Holland shows how the fruit is repackaged for some of its clients.

Achacha wish to thank Filipe Paiva and Carla Marques from Fruit Ezy,
Chatswood, NSW for assisting today with the draw for a New Year box of
Achachas.  We thought it would a nice way to thank those who have entered
our first draw for a 5 kilo box of fruit and to wish you all a very Happy
New Year.  Congratulations to the winner, Matthew Dunn. We hope this is a
good omen for the year to come Matthew!

We encourage all Achacha followers to get cracking and enter the draw for
the next box which will be decided at the end of January.  Those who have
already entered please feel free to re-enter, hopefully with new locations.
Please send the name of the location and the date to our Facebook.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!

Achacha reports that it has commenced harvesting the new season’s crop, and fruit should be in stores in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA over the next few weeks.  Palm Creek Plantation Manager Ross Oliveri reports that the fruit is the best yet, having had excellent growing conditions during the year. Coincidentally, Achacha is pleased to announce that it has been nominated by the jury as a finalist for Berlin’s FRUIT LOGISTICA Innovation Award 2012, “the most coveted award in the fresh produce industry”.

The Achacha is a tropical fruit which has its origins in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. Now grown in North Queensland, it has a bright orange skin and a unique flavour which has been described as “sweet, tangy, refreshing”.  It will be available in good fruit outlets as quickly as it can be harvested and distributed. Export sales are also under way – the fruit will be in Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow and Dubai before New Year.

The FRUIT LOGISTICA Innovation Award 2012 is part of FRUIT LOGISTICA 2012 which will take place in Berlin, Germany from 8-10 February 2012. This is the world’s major fruit fair. The products nominated will feature in a special display area, with more than 56,000 trade visitors from 125 countries having a chance to vote for the innovation of the year during the event’s first two days. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on the final day of the fair.

Presented to honour outstanding innovations in the fresh produce sector, the award recognises new products or services that have had a positive impact on the market. Introduced in 2006, it will be presented in 2012 for the seventh time by Messe Berlin and FRUCHTHANDEL MAGAZINE (Dusseldorf)

Attracting widespread interest from industry experts and the media, the Innovation Award has become the most coveted award in the fresh produce industry. Previous winners include “Salanova” lettuce produced by Rijk Zwaan (2006), “Vitamini’s” vegetable snack produced by FresQ/Rainbow Growers Group (2007), the “Intense” beefsteak tomato from Nunhems Netherlands BV (2008), the “Sweet Green Pepper” produced by Enza Zaden (2009) the Arils Removal Tool (ART) for pomegranates developed by Mehadrin Tnuport Export (2010) and (the first non-European winner) the Limeburst Finger Limes citrus fruit from Australia (2011).

Achacha attended Brisbane South Bank’s second Regional Flavours food fair at the end of August. One hundred Queensland producers and winemakers from all corners of the State were busy over the two days talking with thousands of visitors.  The Achacha Blossom Raw Honey proved a winner and sold out; Achacha Jelly and Marmalade, which made their debut on the stall, received positive feedback and won fans.  The versatile Jelly can be used as a marinade for white meats, to accompany fresh cheeses and, for example,
on scones.

Here are the first of our stockists:

Brisbane
·         Clayfield Fruit Market: 823 Sandgate Road, Clayfield QLD 4011 (07) 3262 8111
·         Superior Fruit & Wendy’s Kitchen: 365 Honour Avenue, Graceville QLD 4075 (07) 3379 7508

Granite Belt
·          Ballandean Estate Winery Cellar Door, 354 Sundown Rd, Ballandean Qld 4382, +61 7 4684 1226; see www.ballandeanestate.com

Sydney
·         ·Favaloso Café Deli Store: Corner Murray and Belgrave Streets, Bronte 02 9389 8002
·         ·Cheese Selectors: EQ Markets Moore Park on Wed and Sat.

For information:  fruit [at] achacha.com.au

Many thanks to those who have ventured out and purchased Achachas during the season. The Achacha will be back in December – we look forward to catching up with you again then. With luck, less rain, flooding and cyclones, the season will be longer.

Sydney’s food lovers are revving up for the Taste of Sydney starting this Thursday, 10 March. The weather looks good for an outdoor degustation in Centennial Park, off Parkes Drive.

Oh, la la! Today we sampled our first Achacha macaron crafted by Jean Michel – the master macaron maker from Baroque Bistro (and Renaissance) home of the original Sydney macaron. If you, too, would like to know how delicious they are, simply visit the Achacha stand D3. Of course, we will have lots of fresh Achacha and also Achacha honey which proved very popular last week at Eveleigh Markets – be quick as supply is limited.

You can find Achacha at Taste of Sydney, Centennial Park 10-13 March. For programmes and tickets go to www.tasteofsydney.com.au.

Achacha was showcased on ABC TV’s BTN on 22 February.  It is encouraging to see kids so interested in fruit.