**Soursop is a tropical fruit that grows in hot, humid lowland regions across the Caribbean, Central
Soursop Spines Are Soft: Fruit From Colombian Farms
and South America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.** It cannot survive frost, and most of the
world's supply comes from small farms clustered in a belt that sits close to the equator.
Our soursop is sourced in Colombia, and the extract is made in Dallas, Texas.
The tree itself
Soursop is Annona muricata, a name worth knowing because it has a lot of aliases. Depending on
where you are in the world it is called graviola, guanabana, corossol, or sirsak. Same fruit, same
species, different country.
It is a lowland tree. The ceiling is roughly 1,000 metres elevation, and below that it wants year-round
warmth, high humidity, and soil that drains well. It grows fast and can begin bearing fruit within
a few years of planting. The fruit itself is dark green, heart-shaped to oval, and covered in soft
curved spines that bend rather than prick. Inside the white pulp is fibrous and intensely fragrant,
somewhere between pineapple and strawberry with a sour edge.
Where it grows
The Caribbean and Central America are home to some of the oldest cultivation of the fruit.
Countries like Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica have grown it for generations, and it shows up in
local markets as juice, pulp, and candies.
South America is a major production region. Colombia, in particular, has substantial lowland tropical territory that sits well within the range the tree requires. Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela all
produce it as well.
West Africa adopted soursop through trade routes centuries ago, and it is now well-established
in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where it is grown both for domestic consumption and
for export.
Southeast Asia is one of the largest growing regions by volume. Indonesia, the Philippines,
Vietnam, and Malaysia all cultivate it widely. In those countries it is typically called sirsak or
guyabano.
Southern Florida is the northernmost edge of where it grows commercially in the United States.
It survives there because the climate stays warm year-round, but a single frost can kill the tree,
so it is not grown at scale anywhere in the continental US outside that narrow coastal strip.
The relatives people confuse it with
This is worth clearing up because the confusion is everywhere online.
Soursop has two close relatives in the Annona family that are commonly sold and photographed
alongside it, and they are not the same fruit.
Sugar apple, or sweetsop, is Annona squamosa. It looks similar from a distance but the skin
is divided into rounded segments rather than covered in spines, and the flesh is much sweeter with
less of the sour note. Different tree, different flavor, different nutritional profile.
Cherimoya is Annona cherimola. This one is often called the world's best-tasting fruit and
it gets confused with soursop frequently. It grows at higher elevations than soursop, which is why
you find it more often in Andean countries. The skin is smoother and the flesh is custard-like and
sweet without the sour edge.
"Custard apple" is where it gets genuinely confusing, because that name is used loosely for
several different Annona species depending on which country you are in. In Australia it often refers
to Annona atemoya, a hybrid. In India it is frequently used for sugar apple. In the Caribbean it
sometimes refers to cherimoya. It does not reliably mean soursop, and it does not reliably mean any
single fruit. If a product is labeled custard apple and you want soursop specifically, the Latin
name Annona muricata is the only check that holds.
Why sourcing geography matters
Where a plant grows affects what it is exposed to, how it is handled, and how long it travels before
processing. Soursop deteriorates quickly after harvest, which is part of why liquid extract exists
in the first place: processing close to the source locks in what the fruit contains before it
breaks down.
Our supply starts in Colombia and the extract is finished in Dallas. Made in USA is accurate for the
finished product. We do not print farm names or certifications we cannot verify.
We wrote the whole thing down.
Our free guide covers what soursop is, the forms it comes in, how people use it and what to watch for,
without the contradictions.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not
intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.*