43 New-to-Me ... #32 Pichuberry

I've now made a habit of looking carefully at the produce aisle of any grocery store I visit. Every once in a while, I find an interesting new-to-me food for my project. Such was the case with Pichuberries. I'd never heard of them, so I turned to Google. Interestingly, Pichuberries have an official website. Equally fascinating, the name Pichuberry is always capitalized and is trademarked. From their site:

"The berries are small, round fruit, about the size of marbles or cherries. They have smooth, waxy skin that ripens from green to orange or yellow. Inside, the fruit is sweet and juicy, with many small yellow seeds. Pichuberries grow inside husks that assimilate small lanterns, as tomatillos do. In fact, the Pichuberry® fruit is sometimes associated with Ground Cherries and many people think they come from the same plant.
The difference is that the fruit of the Pichuberry® plant (Physalis Peruviana) has a different flavor and grows differently than the Ground Cherry."

Expect to be hearing a lot about the Pichuberry in the next year. I get the feeling that it's the next acai berry, in terms of popularity.

So how was the Pichuberry? Not what I expected! It is not a typical sweet berry. Instead, it has the texture of a cherry tomato and a very tart, yet pleasant, taste. The first was quite a surprise and I wasn't sure I liked it, but the more I ate, the more I liked it. I rated them a 7. My tasting companions Lisa and Kelly rated it 6 and 8 respectively.