Mangosteen substitutes

The same fruit, peeled and packed in light syrup, sold in most Asian grocers and increasingly in large supermarkets. Drain it well and reserve the syrup, which is useful as part of the sweetener in a drink or dessert.

Best for

desserts, fruit cups and salads, sorbet and ice cream, cocktails and iced drinks, sticky rice plates

The right answer whenever the recipe says fresh mangosteen and you cannot get it. The flesh is softer and slightly waterlogged compared with fresh, and the syrup mutes the perfume while adding sugar, so a dessert made with it tastes sweeter and less vivid. Cut the recipe's sugar by about a quarter and add a squeeze of lime to bring the tang back. In anything blended or frozen the difference is barely noticeable.

The most available substitute with the right character: translucent white flesh, floral aroma and a sweet-tart balance. Peel and pit fresh lychees, or drain canned ones.

Best for

fruit salads and cups, sorbet and ice cream, cocktails and drinks, desserts, garnish

Very close in effect, and in a mixed dessert most people will not question it. Lychee is more strongly perfumed, more rose-scented and a little sweeter, where mangosteen has a rounder, peachier tang. Add a squeeze of lime per cup to restore the acidity mangosteen has and lychee lacks. The flesh is firmer and snappier rather than melting into segments.

The hairy red-shelled relative of lychee, sold peeled in syrup. Once drained, the white flesh looks and eats much like mangosteen segments in a bowl.

Best for

fruit cups, desserts, drinks, sticky rice plates, fruit salads

A good visual and textural match, slightly firmer and a shade more acidic than mangosteen, with less perfume. Check the label, because canned rambutan is often stuffed with a piece of pineapple, which will add a distinct tropical tang you may or may not want. Drain thoroughly, since the syrup carries a lot of sugar.

The best non-tropical option, and the one to reach for in a sorbet, smoothie, jam or drink. Peel a very ripe peach or nectarine, chop it, and toss with lime juice.

Best for

sorbet and ice cream, smoothies and juices, jam and coulis, cocktails, poached fruit

Honest and surprisingly effective, because the peachy note is the part of mangosteen's flavour that people remember most. What you lose is the light floral perfume and the delicate segmented flesh, so this belongs in blended and frozen applications rather than in a fruit plate. A quarter teaspoon of rose water per cup pushes it noticeably closer to the real thing.

A small tan-shelled relative of lychee with translucent flesh, commonly used in the same Southeast Asian desserts and sweet soups where mangosteen appears.

Best for

sweet soups and tong sui, fruit cups, drinks, desserts, chilled syrups

Sweeter and distinctly musky, with a faintly smoky aroma rather than a floral one, so a dessert made with it tastes deeper and less bright. It is also smaller, so the pieces disappear in a fruit cup. Works well in a chilled syrup or sweet soup and less well anywhere you wanted the clean tang of mangosteen to cut through richness.

Sold in Latin American and Asian freezer sections and online as pulp or as bottled mangosteen juice, and it is the real fruit, so the flavour is right.

Best for

smoothies and juices, sorbet, cocktails, coulis and sauces, jelly and panna cotta

Ideal where the fruit was going to be blended and useless where it needed to stay in pieces. Bottled mangosteen juice is often heavily sweetened and diluted, so read the label and reduce the recipe sugar accordingly. Puree is more concentrated than fresh flesh, so start with half the volume and adjust.