Camu Camu Berry Powder

Freeze-dried whole and milled fine, camu camu turns a pale rose-tan and sharp enough on the tongue to make you blink — closer to sherbet or an under-ripe cranberry than anything conventionally sweet. Freeze-drying keeps its blush color intact; spray-dried versions turn a duller brown and lose much of their bite. Camu camu grows wild along the flooded riverbanks of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon, a shrub that spends months each year standing in water. Harvesters gather the small red fruit by canoe as it ripens and drops toward the surface. The berry is prized for its exceptionally dense vitamin C content, which the body draws on to help maintain healthy skin and support its own antioxidant defenses. Weight for weight, camu camu carries more vitamin C than almost any other fruit under cultivation, which is why a little of this powder goes further than a large glass of citrus juice. Ours is freeze-dried whole, not reduced to isolated ascorbic acid, and comes from a small growers' cooperative in the Loreto region who still harvest by hand from the water. A teaspoon stirred into water or juice is plenty; the tartness wants a little sweetness alongside, so pair it with mango, pineapple, or a spoon of honey. Small, sour, and startlingly potent — the Amazon's answer to the orange.