The fruit of the cashew tree is an accessory fruit or false fruit. What appears to be the fruit is an oval structure called the cashew apple.

It is edible and has a strong “sweet” smell and a sweet taste. The pulp of the cashew apple is very juicy, but the skin is fragile, making it unsuitable for transport.

In Latin America, a fruit drink is made from the cashew apple pulp which has a very refreshing taste having notes of mango, raw green pepper and grapefruit.

The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney shaped drupe that grows at the end of the cashew apple.

Within the true fruit is the cashew nut the real seed. The seed is surrounded by a double shell.

Roasting cashews destroys the toxin, in the shells. Some people are allergic to cashew nuts. The cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL), a byproduct of processing cashew, is used to treat tooth abscesses. Many parts of the plant are used by the medicinally.

The bark scraped, soaked overnight and boiled to controls diarrhea. It also yields a gum used in varnish.

Seeds are ground into powders used to treat snake bites.

The cashew nut is eaten on its own, lightly salted or sugared or dipped in chocolate.

The nut can be used whole for garnishing sweets or curries, or ground into a paste to form a base for curries and sweets.

It is also used in powdered form in the preparation of several Indian sweets and desserts.

Both roasted and raw kernels are used whole for making curries and sweets in Goa. The cashew apple is eaten raw or used in curries.

The cashew nut can also be harvested in its tender form, when the shell has not hardened and is green in color. In Thai and Chinese cuisines they are used whole.

In Brazil, the cashew fruit juice is popular all across the country. In Panama, the cashew fruit is cooked with water and sugar to get a sweet, brown, paste-like dessert

In Goa, India, the cashew apple is mashed, the juice is extracted and kept for fermentation for 2–3 days. Fermented juice then undergoes a double distillation process to get feni.

In Tanzania, the cashew apple is fermented, then distilled to make a strong liquor gongo.

In Mozambique strong liquor from the cashew apple which is called “the burning water.”