It’s the African superfood loved by celebrities such as Vivienne Westwood, Lily Cole, Jude Law, and Kirsten Dunst. But a new video shows that the rock hard green fruit, which contains powdery pulp packed full of antioxidants, proves rather tricky to crack into. Ellie Freeman, chief taste expert at healthy snack subscription box company Graze, has to resort to using a rolling pin, a bread knife, a mallet and finally a machinist hammer before she can finally get into the fruit in the clip. In all, it took seven minutes and all four implements for Ellie to access the white seeds inside. The video was made to celebrate the hard baobab fruit, which grows on the baobab tree – more commonly known as the ‘tree of life’ – in rural parts of Africa. The green pods dry naturally on the branch before they are harvested, and the large white seeds removed. The seeds are then ground down into a tropical-flavoured powder which can be used in smoothies, energy bars, juices or as a natural sweetener on cereal or in yoghurts. Graze uses the powder in one of its snacks, baobab and raspberry clusters. The baobab fruit is lauded for its health benefits as it is an excellent source of nutrients such as calcium, potassium, thiamin and vitamin B6. It also contains three times as much vitamin C as an orange, and is said to boost the immune system, aid digestion, rejuvenate skin, nails and hair and even help with anti-ageing. But despite its health properties, don’t try opening one of these at home. The video shows that even the professionals struggle to open the rock hard pods. Ellie first tries to use a rolling pin to bash the pods open, but the baking tool barely makes a dent in the fruit. She then tries using a bread knife, which only makes a small incision at the top of the pod. Ellie then whacks the pod with a mallet, which doesn’t even leave a scratch. It’s only when she tries a machinist hammer – normally used in metal working – that she manages to break through the pod. But even then, it requires some old-fashioned elbow grease to pull apart two halves of the fruit before she can release the seeds inside.