The açaí bowl trend has hit New Castle County. Here are 4 places to try one

It might not be easy to pronounce, but it's fast becoming one of the hottest food trends.

Shops offering refreshing açaí (ah-sah-EE) bowls have been popping up faster in New Castle County than spring daffodils.

Açaí, a tropical, South American purple berry found in rainforests, is often touted as a superfruit. 

Açaí shops also often serve pitaya, a white-fleshed fruit dotted with black crunchy, nutty-tasting seeds. The fruit, with a texture close to kiwi, is sometimes known as Dragon Fruit. 

The bright colors in an açaí bowl make it an instant Instagrammable treat.

There are three shops off Newark's Main Street alone offering the superfruits, including Viva Bowls, Playa Bowls and PoBu.

"The consumer is wanting more transparency in what they eat," says Kelly Hartranft, owner of Viva Bowls in the East Market Plaza at 280 E. Main St., Suite 110.

"We have a transparent menu. You know what's in every single thing you order. We cater to a lot of vegans."

Twist Juice Bar, which opened in 2016 in Rehoboth Beach, also has açaí bowls ($8-$10) made with frozen banana, blended with almond milk, topped with vegan granola and fresh seasonal fruit.

Additional fruit, peanut or almond butter, chia seeds and coconut flakes are $1 each, and protein can be added for $1.50 more.

Açaí treats can also be found at other businesses like Frazzberry Frozen Yogurt in Pike Creek, and vPho, a Vietnamese restaurant off Kirkwood Highway, near Newark. 

Food served in a takeaway bowl has been gaining popularity with consumers for several years. Baum + Whiteman, New York-based international food and restaurant consultants, predicted the bowl food trend would pick up traction in 2017 and that the plant-based dining movement would be hot in 2018.

While few studies have proven açaí berries' touted health benefits, such as promoting weight loss and reducing cholesterol, the fruit is rich in antioxidants, according to WebMD.

Açaí is pulverized into a thick purple-maroon pulp, served cold and scooped into the bottom of a bowl. Various fresh fruits and toppings, like coconut flakes and Nutella, are piled on top.  

Since açaí pulp spoils quickly, it has to be frozen, so it is presented very much like soft-serve ice cream.

The fruit first gained a following among surfers and volleyball players on Brazilian beaches. They liked that the low-sugar food was light and promoted energy.

At Brazilian beachside juice bars, açaí is served with granola and bananas.

The fruit bowls aren't just for breakfast, and are now becoming mainstream. Here are some new places to try açaí:

Viva Bowls

Tucked away inside Newark's Market East Plaza at 280 E. Main St., Suite 110, is Viva Bowls: Delaware's Super Fruit Cafe, owned by Kelly Hartranft and Robert Peoples. It has been open since November. 

The entrance to the plaza is just before Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen. Viva Bowls is across from Wang's Oriental Food Store.

Hartranft says Viva Bowls was born because of her own food allergies. After visits to doctors and a nutritionist to find out the cause of daily migraines, she found she had a severe dairy allergy.

While "trying to cope to life without dairy," Hartranft was introduced to açaí and pitaya during a trip to the West Coast. 

For the past four years, she has been making the superfruit bowls for family and friends around the Delaware area, after tracking down the obscure pitaya fruit in Spanish markets.

Last year, Hartranft decided to open her own shop and began renovations to the Newark site in July 2017. She opened four months later.

"We're not a chain, we're just a little local shop doing our own thing. I'm passionate about helping Delaware," says Hartranft, who says she tries to use as many locally sourced items as she can such as bee pollen and Delaware honey.

Viva Bowls serves fresh fruit, homemade nut butters, and homemade granola.

Bowls (24-ounces) are made-to-order and there are wide variety of offerings including goji berries, coconut honey peanut butter, crumbled dates, cacao nibs and hemp seeds.

Bases of the fruit bowls can be açaí, pitaya and banana. 

The First State ($11) bowl includes açaí infused with Nutella that's layered with house granola, topped with bananas, strawberries, pomegranate seeds, and finished with a Nutella drizzle. 

If you're looking for something a little lighter, check out the Bikini Bowl ($9) which starts with an açaí base and has layers of granola, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, coconut flakes and agave nectar.

Want to get your daily fill of vegetables? Green bowls ($11) are made with local greens, usually spinach or kale, but they can change with the season. 

The shop, decorated with pineapples and fresh bananas, has several tables and a new, large menu painted on a wall.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Viva Bowls is closed Mondays. Extended hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. will begin April 3. The shop will be closed on Easter. Visit www.vivabowlsde.com/

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Playa Bowls 

Surfing videos play continuously in the new shop, with a strong beachy vibe, that specializes in serving açaí, pitaya, coconut and steel-cut, organic oatmeal bowls. 

Green bowls, blended with kale, banana, pineapple and coconut along with toppings like mango, shaved almonds and vanilla protein, also are available. Other menu choices include juices, smoothies and chia pudding ($8).

Playa Bowls at 134 E. Main St. in Newark opened in January.  It takes the place of the old SAS Cupcakes location, and is next to Margherita's Pizza.

The shop is part of a New Jersey-based chain that originated on the boardwalk in Belmar in 2014. 

Playa Bowls founders Rob Giuliani and Abby Taylor are New Jersey shore natives and longtime surfers. They opened their first business after being inspired by surf trips to Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, California, Hawaii, Nicaragua and Panama. Almost every town they visited offered versions of açaí or pitaya bowls.

Playa Bowls has since grown to 25 stores and three food trucks in a little more than three years.

We're hooked on the Tropical Bowl ($9), pure açaí topped with granola, bananas, pineapple, coconut flakes and honey. Another favorite is Nutella ($11) which includes açaí , banana, strawberry, coconut flakes and Nutella drizzle.

Fresh juices, 12 to 20 ounces costing between $4.99 to $6.99, include the Mermaid Fuel, a blend of kale, pineapple, apple and mint.

Looking for a little more oomph? Smoothies, $6.99 to $7.99, include the Booster, a mix of banana, vanilla protein, flax oil, spirulina, peanut butter and cashew milk.  

Playa Bowls is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Visit Playa Bowls Newark Facebook page.

Raw Essential Juice Bar

The new Pike Creek juice bar in the Shops of Limestone Hills, 5335 Limestone Road, has a wide variety of healthy offerings including organic cold-pressed juices, wellness shots of wheatgrass, turmeric, milk thistle oil and ginger.

Fresh, 20-ounce smoothies are blended with frozen fruits and fresh vegetables. No sugar, ice, powders or syrups are added.

An Island Breeze ($7.50) smoothie has pineapple, mango, strawberries and orange juice, while The Hydrator ($8.50) includes cucumber, spinach, pineapple, mango, chia seeds and coconut water. 

Raw Essential calls its açaí bowls a "non-dairy, plant-based, superfood meal."

The bowls are made with organic, frozen açaí fruit, instead of powders or juice. The Essential ($9.50) has an açaí base blended with banana and apple juice. It's topped with strawberries, blueberries, banana slices, coconut flakes, chia seeds and organic pumpkin flax seed granola.

If you want gluten-free granola, the cost is an additional $1.50. If you want honey or agave syrup drizzled on top, just ask. It's free.

The shop founder is Dan Mckelvey, who grew up on a small dairy and produce farm in New York. While traveling to California on vacations in 2008, he tried his first açaí bowl. He later owned two Pure Raw Juice locations, before opening Raw Essential. 

The shop also has avocado toast ($6) on multi-grain or gluten-free bread topped with red pepper flakes, grape tomatoes and a carrot ginger drizzle. Oatmeal, served in 12-ounce cups, is $6 and can be topped with peanut, strawberries, vegan chocolate chips, honey and chopped apples.

Raw Essential Juice Bar is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Visit rawessential.com

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PoBu Restaurant

The casual, Newark eatery at 215 E. Main St. (previously the Tavva Indian Cafe) serves sushi burritos, poke bowls and açaí bowls. It opened in October 2017.

Customers build their own meals by walking down an assembly line at a counter and point to ingredients they want to eat. 

While PoBu has açaí bowls ($7) made with almond milk, bananas, strawberries, granola, hemp seed and chopped almond, I'd come here for the savory options. The poke bowls and burritos, in particular, are hard to resist.

If you're a fan of maki or sushi roll, definitely order the PoBu Burrito ($10).

To make the burrito, the staff top a sheet of nori with sushi rice and then layer in ahi tuna, Scottish salmon, avocado and edamame.

For a bit of crunch, they add tempura. The roll gets some gentle heat from squeezes of wasabi basil and sriracha aioli. 

Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, visit poburestaurant.com/

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico

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