The Marañón or Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) produces the world's most peculiar and valuable nut. Unlike any other nut, the kidney-shaped cashew hangs outside its fruit—a fleshy, colorful "apple" that is itself delicious. Native to Brazil but spread throughout the tropics by Portuguese colonizers, the Cashew has become vital to economies from India to Vietnam, from Mozambique to Costa Rica. Every cashew nut you've ever eaten was hand-processed—the caustic shell requires careful handling—making this humble nut far more fascinating than most people realize. In Costa Rica, the marañón is a common sight in hot lowland areas, appreciated for both its nuts and its juicy, tart-sweet "apple."

The humble Cashew is anything but ordinary. Consider this: every single cashew nut you've ever eaten was carefully extracted from a caustic shell by human hands, processed through multiple steps, and shipped halfway around the world. The tree itself is a survivor, thriving in poor, sandy soils where other crops fail. And the forgotten cashew apple—delicious, nutritious, and almost entirely wasted—represents one of the great missed opportunities in tropical fruit. In Costa Rica's dry Pacific lowlands, the marañón stands as a testament to Portuguese colonial-era plant exchanges, Brazilian origins, and the global journey of a truly remarkable nut. Next time you snack on cashews, spare a thought for this fascinating tree and the extraordinary journey those little kidney-shaped kernels made to reach you.