Black Custard Apple, a product of the Southern region

One of the delicious fruits that many people love is custard apple. Among them, Ba Den custard apple in Tay Ninh is the most popular. The area around Ba Den mountain is considered the "capital" of custard apple with dozens of hectares of specialized land.

Soursop (Northern Vietnam calls it Na) is a fruit tree of the genus Annona, originating in tropical America. The fruit is double, moldy green, almost spherical, 7-10 cm in diameter, with segments, each segment corresponding to a carpel, white flesh, black seeds with hard shell. The flesh is soft, delicious, sweet, containing many important nutrients such as glucose, sucrose, starch, protein and vitamin C. Soursop has a lot of sugar, calcium, phosphorus, a variety of vitamins. In both flavor and nutritional value, soursop is worthy of being ranked among the valuable tropical fruits... Ba Den Tay Ninh custard apple is a tough custard apple, with firm fruit, lots of flesh, few seeds, thin skin and sweet. Accordingly, Ba Den Tay Ninh custard apple is grown in the area around the foot of the legendary Ba Den mountain where the special soil and climate make the custard apple delicious and completely different from the same varieties on the market. The strange thing is, the same custard apple variety extracted from Ba Den custard apple tree but grown elsewhere will not produce delicious fruit, the flesh is not as tough, the sweetness is not as good as that grown in the Ba Den mountain area. Therefore, Ba Den Tay Ninh custard apple is considered a specialty associated with the cultural and religious values of Buddhism of Ba Den mountain area. The climate and soil create many differences in the shape and quality of the custard apple here. Accordingly, Ba Den custard apple has a round heart-shaped sphere, green before ripening, and light yellow when ripe. The outer skin of the fruit has many raised or flat segments, with slots between the segments, which expand into white grooves when ripe. Each fruit has an average diameter of about 7.8 cm, an average weight of nearly 200 grams; the average number of fruits per kg is about 5 fruits; the average yield per tree is about 10 kg. Ba Den custard apple flesh accounts for about 70% of the fruit, is ivory white, and the segments are attached together. The sweetness (calculated by Brix) is about 25%. Ba Den custard apple has a rose aroma, a high ratio of protein, total sugar, and energy (calories) with a neutral pH. In addition, soursop flesh also contains many trace elements such as potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese... Recently, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam has granted a Certificate of Geographical Indication Registration for Ba Den custard apple. This is a promising start for the development of Ba Den custard apple in the market. It will help increase its competitiveness with others and protect the brand and rights of producers and customers.