It is one of the common names in Mexico of a plant popularly known as sour capulín or tropical capulín. It is also called wild grape. It is widely used in Veracruz, to make ice cream, liquors and soft drinks. Its scientific name is Ardisia compressa and it belongs to the family Myrsinaceae.
CHAGALAPOLI Ardisia compressa and a large number of Ardisias, Icacoreas and Tnus that make up the synonymy. Plant that is produced in the humid forests from Mexico, especially in Veracruz, in the areas of Catemaco, Los Tuxtlas and Xalapa, to the north of Venezuela. Its fruit is a drupe that has the shape and size of the blueberry, perhaps a little larger, of equal color and skin, but with a central pit or cuckoo. It is juicy but highly astringent to the palate and tongue, with special flavor of Jamaican Water, for which reason it is called a gritty capulin. Their cuckoo is roasted and consumed too, but it's not to everyone's taste. The tree is small in size, up to 7 meters, but of high production, from its base to the crown. The fruit is given in bunches, which are harvested by two methods: that of the egg, or 'egg works double', which cut the bunch and take them to the house to sit down to shell them, and that of patience, which are carefully resting each grain at the foot of the same tree, by means of a small turn so as not to damage the grain, and collecting them in plastic bags. It must be the fruit with the most synonyms, and as it does not accept me more in the synonyms, it contributed here with some additional names to those already mentioned there: ingálan colorado, jazmincillo, laurel, laurel de la sierra, laurel fruit, laurelillo, mangrove de la sierra, pie de paloma, pimientillo, pozolillo, queremba, querembe, querenbe, tililjaz (tzeltal), grape, maroon grape, red yagalán. Capulin is commonly used. It has a high antioxidant and protective content of the cardiovascular system. Consumed as sweet, atole, liqueur
