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Hello, I am a Kaju tree
I am woven intrinsically into the fabric of Goan culture. I am sure you have carried my produce as a souvenir for family & friends, who probably know me as the 2nd most famous export from Goa after Remo Fernandes!
While you probably know me best for my nut — the creamy, curved cashew that ends up roasted, salted, or ground into gravies, but if you slow down and really look at me, you’ll realise there’s a lot more to me. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Despite my strong ties to Goa, my origins are actually from north-east Brazil. I’m a tree of coastal plains, sandy soils, and salty air. Portuguese traders carried me across oceans, and I found a second home along the Konkan coast --- Goa, coastal Karnataka, and Kerala.
I settled in so well, that today, people often think of me as native from here!
Indigenous Tupi-speaking communities in Brazil called me acajú.
Aca meaning fruit
jú meaning that which produces / yields
So acajú roughly meant “the nut-bearing fruit”
When the Portuguese encountered me in Brazil (in the 16th century), they adopted the word almost directly as caju (pronounced ‘ka-zhoo’). So, the local name stuck. And across, Konkani, Marathi, Hindi, Gujrati and all other languages, I continue to be called kāju.
So every time you say kaju, you’re unknowingly speaking a Brazilian forest word, filtered through sailors, ships, and spice routes.
My Story
So, why is everyone going nuts about me?
Let’s understand the nuts & bolts of my fruit & nut, shall we?
What is known as the ‘cashew nut’ is actually, botanically speaking, my true fruit.
My fruit is the hard, kidney shaped structure that my flowers eventually develop into.
Inside that true fruit is the seed, that we extract and eat as cashew (the ‘kernel’ inside the ‘nut’).
My fleshy part (that is often mistaken as my ‘fruit’ and colloquially called cashew apple) is actually my flower stalk that becomes fleshy & juicy, and the true fruit hangs upside down from the bottom of it! So, this gives the impression that I am wearing my seed outside of my fruit.
You could say I am botanically rebellious!
My cashew apple is: Voluptuously juicy, intoxicatingly fragrant and highly perishable. It is rich in Vitamin C. It is also eaten fresh, juiced, or made into jams — that is, if you can get to it before it ferments on its own --- like I said, it is HIGHLY perishable. If you decide to eat my cashew apple fresh – remember to do so over a sink and away from your clothes – you will thank me later!
There are 3 stages to the juice of my cashew apple:
Niro: The fresh, non-alcoholic, and sweet juice extracted by crushing cashew apples, often collected early in the morning.
Urrak: The first distillate of fermented cashew juice, known as a, tangy, and fruity alcoholic, often called "Goa's Jungle Juice". Seasonal drink from March to May.
Feni: The result of the second distillation of the juice, making it much stronger.
Told you! There’s a lot more to me, than meets the eye!
A word of extreme caution here:
My nut is delicious – but dangerous before processing!
Yes, you heard that right.
My hard shell contains anacardic acid, a corrosive, blister-causing oil related to poison ivy. Guaranteed to give you second degree burns on your lips if you try bite into it! This is why cashews are never sold raw in the true sense — they must be roasted or heat-treated to neutralise the toxins.
So if you ever see “raw cashews” in a store, know this: they’re processed-raw, not tree-raw.
My scientific name is Anacardium occidentale.
The genus name Anacardium, it comes from Greek:
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ana meaning up / outward
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kardia meaning heart
So Anacardium literally means “outward facing heart” – a reference to the impression that I am wearing my hook-shaped seed outside of my fruit.
occidentale comes from Latin:
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occidens / occidentis meaning west, where the sun set
Which is a reference to the locational origins of my ancestors i.e. tropical America in the Western hemisphere.
I’m a medium-sized, spreading tree, rarely tall but confidently wide, with a crooked trunk and low branches that invite shade.
My leaves are thick, leathery, and oval — built to conserve water.
My flowers are small, greenish-white with pink streaks, growing in loose clusters. They’re not flashy, but they’re busy with pollinators.
India is the second largest producer of cashew in the world (approx. 20%). Any guesses who is the first?
So, that’s me, despite my exotic vibes, I’m actually a working-class tree — productive, tough, and practical.
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