# Sundried Amla Berries

> One small sour berry carries more vitamin C than most fruit twice its size.

Price: 16.00 USD · in stock

## About
Wrinkled and the color of dried olive skin, these small amla berries shrink to nearly half their fresh size in the sun, concentrating their famously sour, almost mouth-puckering flavor. Amla, or Indian gooseberry, grows on a modest deciduous tree across the Indian subcontinent, fruiting in dense clusters of pale green orbs that ripen through the cooler months. Dried, the berries turn firm and chewy, closer to a dried apricot than a raisin.

Amla has been eaten and prescribed across Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani traditions for centuries, most often as the central ingredient in chyawanprash, a thick preserve taken through the winter months. It is long valued as a rich natural source of vitamin C and traditionally used to support immunity, digestion, and healthy skin and hair, and appears in classical texts as one of the three fruits in triphala, the well-known digestive blend.

These berries are hand-harvested from wild and semi-wild trees in Uttar Pradesh, sun-dried on open mats over several days rather than machine-dehydrated, which preserves more of the fruit's natural vitamin C — a nutrient that degrades quickly under heat. No sulfur or sugar is added during processing, so the berries keep their true sour, astringent character. Each lot is tested for vitamin C content at time of drying.

Eat two or three berries plain, chewy and tart, or simmer a small handful into a pan of syrup or chutney the way many Indian households do. Some soak them overnight and blend the softened fruit into a morning smoothie. A small, sharp fruit that does not ask to be sweetened.