Revue Magazine

Also known as the lichee or litchi, this spiny red fruit originated in China, where it has been grown for three and a half millennia. Amazingly, scientists have found specimens of the sturdy lichi tree that are more than 1,200 years old. In the last 20 years the fruit has caught on beyond Asia, and [...]

For two decades the exotic carambola only appeared in the U.S. as a component of holiday fruit baskets. These days you’ll find them in all the better Stateside grocery stores. Also known as star fruit because of its shape when sliced crosswise, this oddity once grew only in Sri Lanka and the Moluccas. Perhaps a [...]

Known variously as the sugar apple, soursop and cherimoya, this fruit grows in so many regions and varieties that information on it is contradictory. Most sources say there about 2,000 species, all high in carbohydrates, potassium, phosphorous and calcium. The local variety contains a white, custard-like pulp and clusters of dark seeds. The flavor is [...]

Scholars believe Buddhist monks took mangoes on voyages from Asia to Persia in the Fourth and Fifth centuries B.C., and that the Persians subsequently took them to Africa in the 10th century. From there the Portuguese introduced them to Brazil during its 16th century colonization of the New World. And from Brazil the mango spread [...]

Known in other countries by the names sapodilla and naseberry, these little orange fruits come from a tree that is a distant member of the rosebush family. In China, Japan and India, níspero trees were used ornamentally as well as for the fruit. For millennia only Asia knew of the níspero, but in the 1800s [...]