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I live in Minnesota and have never seen tamarind being sold online or in any grocery stores here.

Where can I find it?

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    You could start by saying where do you live, as your question is described I could just say in Mexico or something like that. – xangua Jul 14 '14 at 13:34
  • freaky coincidence. I saw fresh tamarind for the first time today, n a regular grocery store. Not that I expect you to drive to Canada, but it might show that it's becoming more mainstream in North America, and/or that it's in season right now. – Kate Gregory Jul 14 '14 at 19:58
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    What are you making? Certain processed tamarind products are often easier and just as good if not better than what you can make with the fresh pod. – Jolenealaska♦ Jul 14 '14 at 20:29
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You should try Mexican and Indian stores to start with, if you have any. After that try any sort of Asian store, since it's used in other southeast Asian food too. Might even be worth a trip to a nearby larger city; there'll probably be a lot of things you can stock up on. (I see several of each in Minneapolis/St. Paul.)

Note that generally, if you're trying to cook with it, all you really need is tamarind paste, pulp, or concentrate. You can find fresh whole tamarind too, but the processed forms are often even easier to find.

And yes, you can also buy the processed forms online if you're having trouble in stores. Amazon has it, as do I'm sure a lot of more specifically food sites.

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    I live in St. Paul and can personally attest to seeing fresh tamarind available in local Asian markets. – logophobe Jul 14 '14 at 15:45
  • Regular grocery stores in Texas have whole tamarind. – Sobachatina Jul 14 '14 at 18:47
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    @Sobachatina Well, some, anyway. But I think that falls under the umbrella of Mexican stores - in general if you live somewhere that's got a large enough population of some group, the normal grocery stores will support it. – Cascabel♦ Jul 14 '14 at 19:56
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    I love tamarind as a condiment, very underrated. Goes very well with bbq pork. But @Cascabel is very much correct that tamarind pulp or paste is what you want as a condiment. The fruit, when purchased fresh, can be ripe enough that it is a tad too sweet, is sometimes just overripe - not in a good way - and you also have to remove the shell and the seeds. Paste keeps for years. Of course, it depends on what you want to do with it, but I buy paste rather than fresh most of the time. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Sep 10 '18 at 15:42
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This fruit should be available in Indian grocery stores near you. Many south Indian recipes use this. Indian grocery store should have it either in the form of whole fruit or the outer shell removed. You could also get ready made pulp of tamarind there.

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