I got to try framboesa juice yesterday. We were at a restaurant that had an impressive collection of fruit juices, so I thought I would get something new. Many places here serve juice made from fruits and berries that I've never heard of before, such as “graviola,” “acerola,” “umbú,” “cajá,” or “mangaba.” Many of those are from Amazon and are only found in Rio as ingredients in juices. I long learned that asking questions like “What is graviola?” is pointless as I invariably heard either “It’s an Amazonian fruit” or “It’s an Amazonian berry.”

Having tried many of the juices mentioned above. (As an aside, none of which are quite as interesting as açaí or cacao juice, which is made from the same plant chocolate, but tastes quite different.) So, as I was looking for something new, I noticed “framboesa.” I asked Luisa what it was and got the expected result: “A berry.” She couldn’t tell me much more and wasn’t sure if she has seen it. I decided to take my chances.

When my framboesa juice arrived, I took one sip and realized it was raspberry, one of the berries that we got quite a bit of during my summers in Kazakhstan as a kid. I like raspberry, so I wasn’t disappointed, but it amused me have mistaken raspberry for yet another exotic amazon berry.