It’s the 2025 health food trend that is on track to match Ireland’s love affair with the doughnut shop.
Açaí bowls have been around Brazil since the 1980s, but thanks to TikTok, Instagram and a soft-serve makeover, the Amazonian berry is back and experiencing a wave of popularity in Ireland with more businesses set to open outside of Dublin this year.
Google searches for açaí in Ireland — pronounced ah-sigh-E — reached a record high in July last year and began increasing again last week following the new year.
The açaí bowl was invented in the late 1980s by the Gracie family, famous for their jujitsu gyms, in the Amazonas region of Brazil, but didn’t reach the United States until the early 2000s. It then became popular in Australia around 2009.
Açaí berries, found on açaí palm trees, are a lot like grapes and contain a variety of vitamins and other nutrients. Açaí bowls contain blended açaí accompanied by a mix of fresh fruit, granola, cacao, peanut butter, seeds and other toppings.
Oakberry, a global açaí bowl chain, opened its first Irish store on South Anne Street in Dublin city centre in 2023 and is planning to have up to 20 shops across the country by the end of this year.
Nick Twomey, co-owner of Oakberry Ireland, said their customer base was largely made up of women aged 14 to 30. “It also does really well with Brazilians, as obviously it’s from Brazil originally and we have a big Brazilian community here in Ireland,” he said.
“People want something that tastes good and that’s also healthy, but social media has been great for our brand because açaí bowls are very Instagrammable. We thought it would be successful, but we didn’t expect how successful it would be so quickly.
“I suppose people just really took to it when it first landed and when we opened our first store on South Anne Street, there were queues and queues down the street for the first three or four weeks. It was mental, but it was amazing. We do four sizes and it can be quite filling so we have some customers that even order it for dinner.”
Roots Health Food, which sells açaí, dragonfruit and coffee, has locations in Monkstown and Drury Street, and also does bookings for private events.
Dave Meehan, who co-founded Roots with his friend Conor Griffin in 2021 during the pandemic, believes açaí bowls are more than just a trend.
“We wanted to sell healthy food and açaí bowls had been popular in the likes of California, Australia and Bali so we thought why not do it here? As not many people knew about them in Ireland then,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be just a trend as we’ve been here for three years now and it’s been popular in Australia for the past 10-15 years. When you look at articles talking about it in Australia, they still speak about the uptake in açaí only last year. I understand the weather here doesn’t really favour cold products such as açaí all year round, but we’ve decided to stick to our roots and focus on one thing and do it really, really well.”
Felipe Motta, 35, who is originally from Brazil, opened Gaucho’s Dog in 2021, which now has stores in Smithfield, Jervis Shopping Centre and Tallaght.
Gaucho’s, whose name is a tribute to the cowboys of southern Brazil, sells smash burgers, hot dogs and açaí bowls.
Motta said: “Açaí bowls are famous in Brazil and we noticed a gap in the market in Dublin when they were becoming popular in other parts of the world like America. People are more interested in healthy eating and looking after their bodies now and with this ‘superfood’, as it’s called, you can substitute it as a dessert. Açaí bowls are very good for your heart and contain lots of oxidants; there’s such a big hype around them now.”
Meehan, 30, said the nutritional value of açaí bowls depended on where you purchased the açaí. “We used to buy from a really good wholesaler but then we made our big move and started getting it directly from Brazil,” he said.
“We order in a tonne of raw açaí pulp which is just the healthiest way to get it and it doesn’t leave our hands — we blend it ourselves so it’s literally a smoothie base. There could be other ones out there on the market that might be a bit sweeter and a bit more processed, but we just stick to natural ingredients because we would like to eat it every single day and feel it’s a genuine healthy treat.”
Twomey, 27, said his team was planning to open as many new Oakberry stores as possible in 2025. “We’re just going to keep opening up where the demand is taking us,” he said.
“We’re just trying to keep promoting healthy fast food on the go, which is such a hard thing to get these days. We want to improve people’s lifestyles, but also make them extremely happy. We really want to expand outside of Dublin now, we have one store in Kildare but our next plan is to get out of Leinster and go to the likes of Munster and rural areas.”