Açai is a member of Euterpe Genus (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) extensively distributed in Northern South America. It is most abundant in the floodplains of the Brazilian Amazons. Acai (pronounced ah-SAH'-ee) is a lanky, multi-stemmed, monoecious palm that can grow to over 30 meters height. The most important aspect of this palm tree is the acai palm berries. The acai berry fruit grows in 7 species of palm through central and South America found along the basins, rivers and swamps. The acai berry fruits are mainly harvested from July to December. Each palm tree can produce from 3 to 4 clusters of fruits, each cluster can weigh 3 to 6 kilograms, and it contains about 700 to 900 individual grape sized berries. The globular shaped fruits change their color from green to dark purple during the process of ripening and their size range from 1.0 to 1.5 cm in diameter. The majority (about 90%) of the fruit is the large seed in the middle; the edible layer of the fruit is very small and covered by a slim fibrous layer. That is one of the reasons why acai is not that cheap. The edible layer is prepared as pulp and then made into a thick juice. The pulp has roughly 2.4% of protein and 5.9% of lipid. The juice has been prepared for human consumption. The taste is a combination of berries and chocolate. A lot of historical and biochemical evidence indicate that it is the healthiest fruit we have found so far.

It is commonly blended or combined with other fruits, juices, and made into energetic snacks, liqueur, jelly, ice cream and the freeze dried powder, which actually has higher potency than the liquid form due to the higher concentration of the nutrients. The powder has been used to make pills. It has been found that this magical fruit is a natural metabolism booster, hence a great healthy answer to a lot of dieters. It does not suppress your appetite, you still eat the same amount of delicious enjoyable meal as you like, what it does, in layman's term is burring more calories while you are doing your normal activities. Acai has been used initially by surfers for better athletic performance, due to its ability of increased metabolism.

As we noted before, we do not just consume acai alone, we use acai in combination with other beneficial products to gain the most benefits form acai. The obvious benefit of the acai berry and its potential economical value has drawn a lot of companies into creating and producing their brand of acai products to aid weight loss and other health issues. But, every product is different. The formulations of existing acai products can be quite different, in the composition of choice of ingredient, the sourcing of the ingredients and preparation of the ingredients. All factors can affect the quality of the final products...

Hence, it is best to research and find out what is really in an acai product of interests before you spend your valuable hard earned dollars.