With the onset of summer, more and more summer fruits have started coming into the market may it be watermelons, wild berries, ice apples/ tadgolas or beautiful java apples. Even though some of these fruits have been around for a long yet some don’t know about these delicious fruits. So here I am sharing with you one such summer fruit-java apple.

Scientific Name

Syzygium samarangense

Other names of Java Apples

• Wax apple, Water Apple, Rose apple(English)
• Jamb (Marathi),
• Amrool & Safed Jamun (Hindi),
• Paninir Champa (Malayalam) etc.

Appearance

These fruits are bell-shaped. Usually, the size of a lemon but you do get bigger varieties. They are white, white-pink, bright green or red-maroonish in colour, and waxy, glossy, and firm in appearance.

Taste and texture

Love apples have a distinct fruity aroma, sometimes with a hint of rose.

In terms of taste, this fruit is sweet, sometimes bland to taste, but some can be sour too.

As for the texture, this fruit is soft, crisp, mealy, dry, to juicy with the core or seed.

Availability

These are summer fruits. Easily available from late March to early June.

In India, it is mainly available in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

Purchasing and storing

Choose the ones which have no patches, cracks, or dents.

Java apples cannot last long. They are best eaten fresh and chilled. Even in the fridge, they can max to the max last for a week.

Make sure you wash and store them. Since the hole present at the bottom is a place for worm or worm eggs to reside there.

Nutrition facts

Per 100 g, rose apple (Syzygium jambos) provides ~25 kcal, 84–93% water, 0.6 g protein, 5.7 g carbs, 1.1–1.9 g fibre, and is a source of vitamin C (22.3 mg, ~27% of daily needs) along with small amounts of calcium, potassium, and B-vitamins (USDA National Nutrient Database, 2014).

Java apples / Rose apples are low in calories, high in water content and phytochemicals. It has a good amount of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, sulfur, manganese, Vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. This fruit has anticancerous, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties.

Culinary uses

• They are eaten as fruit.
• Sauces,
• Juices,
• Pickles,
• Stews,
• vinegars,
• wines

If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog, read some of my other blogs on hyperlocal fruits like carambola, khirni,or Ramphal.