Fruit Fads

pomegranate and mango
Originally uploaded by avlxyz

Today I went to a local restaurant that serves your average alcoholic beverages like martinis and margaritas. While I was perusing the menu, I noticed that a number of their drink choices were now mango and pomegranate flavored. In fact, I've noticed a proliferation of these fruits lately. I recently had some mango ice cream and there's an episode of Good Eats about pomegranates. Where did these fruits come from and why have they only recently entered the collective vocabulary?

According to an article on Slashfood, flavor creators are choosing "exotic" this year. Half the list of the current trendy sweet flavors are things I have never heard of: acai, lychee, verbena, goji and noni. Mango and pomegranate are also on the list and I do know what they are, but I only found out about them in the last handful of years.

...to get our attention back on their products, flavor industry persons are going to throw us a bunch of super fruits which will be the answer to all our health problems.