Hey lovelies! How’s it going?
As we wave goodbye to summer, I’ve been reflecting back on what a strange season it’s been!
It certainly wasn’t the glorious summer I’d planned, and for the most part, I’ve been too unwell to write my blog, or get outside and tend to my beloved allotment. ?
The weather has also been very unsettled, and according to the MET Office, it’s been the wettest British summer for a decade! (Judging by how well the weeds are growing, I can’t say I’m surprised!)
Thankfully, before the weather (and my health) declined, I was able to spend a few days, enjoying the summer sunshine!
Exotic Fruits UK
I actually started writing this post back during the heatwave in July, when the lovely guys at Exotic Fruits gifted me a beautiful selection of their fresh and rare fruits!
I’m always keen to try fruits and veg that can’t be found in the shops (which is one of the reasons I love gardening), but when it comes to growing tropical fruits, it can be difficult (if not impossible) to grow them in our climate. ☔️
That’s why I was so excited to discover Exotic Fruits UK – a new company offering a wide range of tropical fruits from respected, worldwide growers.
Their growers not only offer the finest quality fruits, they also adhere to high social standards, which I feel is very important.
I really love that Exotic Fruits are environmentally conscious too, and always use eco-friendly packaging, that’s either biodegradable or recyclable.
The company also aim to offset their carbon emissions, and are proactively looking for new ways to decrease their carbon footprint. They have several green initiatives on the go as well, including using renewable energy to grow microgreens and building a living wall for pollinators.
So, without further ado, let me show you the delicious goodies I received (they were generously gifted, but as always, all opinions are my own).
Included in my box (and well-protected with plenty of starch-based packing peanuts) were a bunch of Manzano bananas, a coconut, some rambutans, a (biodegradable) punnet of gooseberries, three passion fruits, one Granadilla passion fruit, a pomegranate, a starfruit, an atemoya and a teeny-tiny finger lime!
Because it was such a hot day, the first thing I did when my fruit arrived, was whip up a creamy and refreshing smoothie. I used the coconut, bananas and rambutans, and blended them together with the fresh coconut water and some icy cold coconut milk. Cheers!
Rambutans are similar to lychees, and in the past, I’ve found them to be rather tasteless, but the ones from Exotic Fruits seemed to be so much fresher, and were really bursting with flavour!
To my surprise, the Manzano bananas were incredibly tasty too! They were a lot denser than the Cavendish variety (the type usually found in the supermarkets) and they had a much more fruity taste! (They’re also known as apple bananas, and I think this is due to their fruitiness!).
Despite their small size, these cute bananas were actually more filling than regular bananas, and they were without a doubt, the best bananas I’ve ever tasted in my life!
Another fruit that blew me away, was the atemoya. This strange-looking fruit is actually a hybrid of a sugar apple and a cherimoya.
Back in my fruitarian days (many moons ago) I’d sometimes eat cherimoya, but I’ve never tried a sugar apple before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect…but let me tell you, my tastebuds were blown away!
This sugary-sweet, custardy fruit was sublime! It was perfectly soft and ripe, and similar to a cherimoya, but sweeter. It also had far fewer seeds in it, than the cherimoyas I’ve tried in the past. (The seeds are large and inedible, so the less of them, the better!)
Every fruit that I tried from Exotic Fruits was delicious, and I can honestly say that there wasn’t a single one that I didn’t love!
I think I was most surprised by how fresh the fruit was, and by how much flavour it all had. It was definitely much tastier than anything you can buy in the grocery store, and I thought it was even better than the exotic fruit, found in the Chinese supermarket!
I had such a blast trying all these fruits as well, and it was so much fun to discover new ones, that I hadn’t even heard of before!
There are over 3,000 different kinds of edible fruit on this planet, yet only 5% are available to buy here in the UK..until now – thanks to this wonderful new start-up!
Exotic Fruits offer a wide range of tropical fruits that are available to buy on their website, so definitely check them out.
What’s your favourite exotic fruit? I’d love to hear your suggestions for what I should try next! (I don’t know about you, but I’ve been eyeing up these red bananas and this beautiful pink guava!)
If you’d like to see more of what I made with my exotic fruit, definitely check out my delicious Roasted Pepper and Passionfruit Kebabs recipe HERE.
Take care, and I’ll see you all again next time! ?
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