I’ve been using Amla powder for ages and always thought it was powdered gooseberries from India because the label says “Indian Gooseberry.” But no, it turns out, it is not a true gooseberry at all, it simply looks, tastes, and acts like a gooseberry… but it is a different genus, I think. Actually, I’m a chemist so I really don’t know how it works.
Anyway, try adding a tablespoon of amla to smoothies, probiotic sodas and drinks like kombucha, or even to mixed drinks. I can never explain the flavor besides “it adds good mouthfeel” but I think that Ayurvedic tradition nails it: amla fruit is sour (amla) and astringent (kashaya) in taste (rasa), with sweet (madhura), bitter (tikta) and pungent (katu) secondary tastes (anurasas). Its qualities (gunas) are light (laghu) and dry (ruksha), the postdigestive effect (vipaka) is sweet (madhura) and its energy (virya) is cooling (shita).
In the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition, half an alma fruit was the final gift to the Buddhist sangha by the great Indian emperor Ashoka. This is illustrated in the Ashokavadana in the following verses: “A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya Ashoka, has gone from being lord of Jambudvipa [the continent] to being lord of half a myrobalan”
Below is a brand of alma that I really like, but I’m sure there is a lot of good stuff out there.
Kombucha Today 