Saramuyo: what it is, taste and how to eat it

What is it?

The saramuyo (Annona squamosa), also known as anona, ate or azucarón, is a tropical fruit of the Annonaceae family, a relative of the cherimoya and the soursop. It has a scaly green skin formed of prominent segments and a creamy white flesh that is very sweet, fragrant and soft in texture, surrounding shiny black seeds. In Mexico it is grown mainly in Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Veracruz, where it ripens between July and September. It is eaten fresh as a table fruit and is used in aguas frescas, ice lollies, ice creams and atoles, as well as having an important role in Yucatecan dessert cookery. It is one of the traditional fruits of the Maya homestead garden and retains a high cultural value in the south-east.

Origin and history

The saramuyo is native to the Antilles and the tropical areas of America, naturalised in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún recorded several annonas in the Florentine Codex under Nahua names such as 'tzapotl', and the Maya knew them as 'tsalmuy' or 'dzalmuy', from which its present Spanish Yucatecan name 'saramuyo' derives. The species Annona squamosa spread through the Caribbean and tropical America from pre-Columbian times, and the Spanish took it to Asia and Africa during the colonial period, where it is now widely cultivated. CONABIO records it as a naturalised species with traditional cultivation in Maya family orchards, and CONABIO Árboles describes its early domestication. Larousse Cocina documents it as a key fruit of the Yucatecan recipe book, and México Desconocido includes it among the traditional annonas of south-east Mexico alongside the cherimoya and the soursop.

Characteristic ingredients

The saramuyo tree is small, 3 to 7 metres tall, with alternate leaves and small greenish flowers. The fruit is spherical or ovoid, measures 6-10 centimetres and has a green skin with scaly segments that separate when ripe. The flesh is white or slightly yellowish, sweet, creamy and very fragrant; it contains natural sugars, vitamin C, iron, phosphorus and antioxidants. Each segment of flesh surrounds a shiny black inedible seed. There are variants with pink flesh and others that are more acidic depending on the region. To eat it, the fruit is broken in half and the flesh eaten with a spoon, spitting out the seeds. In cooking it is used to make agua fresca by blending the flesh with water and sugar, as well as artisanal ice creams, sorbets, ice lollies, mousses and fillings for pastries. It should be distinguished from the anón colorado or 'anona' (Annona reticulata) and from the cherimoya (Annona cherimola), close relatives with distinct flavours and appearances.

Cultural significance

The saramuyo is part of the gastronomic heritage of south-east Mexico and especially of Yucatecan cuisine, where it is used in markets such as the Lucas de Gálvez in Mérida and in traditional ice cream, ice lolly and dessert establishments. In the peninsula it retains a strong rootedness in the Maya homestead garden, an agroforestry system of family orchards recognised as biocultural heritage by SADER and CONABIO. It has no denomination of origin, but it is among the Mexican annonas with underused commercial potential. The artisanal ice cream parlours of Mérida and Campeche, such as the legendary Colón, have popularised saramuyo ice cream as a distinctive regional flavour. The fruit also has uses in traditional Maya medicine and appears in tales of the Yucatecan countryside as a courtyard tree associated with abundance. Its seasonal nature and the difficulty of transporting it because of its fragility give it a very specific regional value, hard to reproduce outside the south-east.

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