Scientific Name: Myrciaria vexator McVaugh

In my quest to make tropical fruit jams, I discovered the Blue Grape Vexator. It is a rare tree specimen and difficult to source. The Blue Grape originated from South and Central America. It’s a short bushy tree with shiny long oval leaves with pointy tips. It makes a beautiful landscape tree.

Flowering occurs in late winter or early spring. The thick skinned fruit is about 1 to 1/2 inches and changes from a green to a dark blue color as it ripens. The skin is tough and not edible. Inside is a pinkish translucent gelatinous pulp. It’s sweet and delicious but has a slight astringent after taste. It tastes similar to a Java Plum (Jamun).

Here I have a large bowl of fresh picked blue grapes. I am hoping that the delicious pulp will make a delicious tasting jam.

The skin and seeds make up much of the grape.

The peels were removed and discarded along with the seeds. Some of the grapes contained more than 2 seeds. Here is the resulting pulp.

As I hoped, the blue grape pulp resulted in a lovely, exquisite tasting jam even though it made a very small amount of jam. I think the effort was worth it!