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Guatemalan Fruits

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Guatemala: the land of eternal Spring, that’s what our country is called. We’re blessed with beautiful weather all year round, and even on rainy days when our “winter’ is at its worst, you will probably have a sunny morning or an afternoon with blue skies. With such wonderful weather, we can enjoy a wide variety of produce. Aside from bananas, mangoes, papaya, pineapples and such, there are a few fruits that are specific to our geographical area, and I am sure they will be new to a lot of our readers from abroad. You won’t find these at the supermarket, you need to go to the local markets to find most of them.

Helga

Níspero

This fruit is comparable with its distant relative, the apple, in many aspects, with a high sugar, acid and pectin content. It is eaten as a fresh fruit and mixes well with other fruits in fresh fruit salads or fruit cups. Firm, slightly immature fruits are best for making pies or tarts. The fruits are also commonly used to make jam, jelly, and chutney, and are often served poached in light syrup.  It has a sweet, yet slightly tangy taste.

Zapote Mamey

This fruit has a rough, sandy peel that when cut open it reveals zapote’s terracota flesh. The texture is buttery (comparable to the texture of an avocado, but softer still) and the flavor is sweet and earthy.  When these are in season, they are used as dessert after a meal, or used to make ice cream pops and smoothies.

Chico Zapote

Another variety, is Chico Zapote.  Not at all comparable to Zapote Mamey.  This fruit has a milder flavor, very sweet and malty.  The chico zapote tree provides a natural chewing gum, chicle.

Mamey

The mamey tree, resembling southern magnolia trees, provides this yellow-orange fruit.  It’s firm pulp has a sweet-tangy taste and it is used to make ice cream pops, fruit punch and jams.

Caimito

This purple fruit resembles a large plum, but when you cut it open you will find a white, somewhat translucent pulp with a milky texture. It’s flavor is sweet and subtle.   It is best served chilled.

Jocote

This little fruits pack a lot flavor!  When ripe, they turn bright red and their pulp is bright yellow with a sweet, juicy and tangy flavor. Aside from eating it fresh as it is, it is used to make Jocotes en dulce around Christmas time. This dessert is made by cooking jocotes with panela, cinnamon, water, allspice and other ingredients.

Jocote de Marañón

Most of you are probably familiar with the cashew nut.  This is the fruit where the nut comes from.  This fruit has a tangy and astringent flavor, so it is mostly used to make sweetened juice (agua de marañón).

Paternas

These are available in the southern coast of Guatemala and El Salvador.  They resemble green beans and have a sweet cottony white interior.

Sources: WikipediaChow, Sabelotodo, Whatsupelsalvador

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This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

Comments (7)

  • lucio us lopez

    December 23, 2013 at 12:49 am

    i like the fruits guatemala i love to eat it

  • Angela Bartholet

    September 17, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    this website is okay, it doesn’t really help me with my research for a school project on Guatemala.

  • Kitty

    September 17, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    Hi Angela! As we are mainly a recipe site, we don’t have that much information for research, but we found this article that can help you!
    We hope your school project does great!

    Kitty & Helga

  • Sharan Lynn

    October 28, 2015 at 9:05 pm

    Am excited about this information. I live near Antigua and have tried some, and some not listed Caoba farms has some delicious fruit I can’t find anywhere else.
    I am just wanting to try a nispero pie. So will see what is in your recipes. Thanks

  • Kitty

    October 28, 2015 at 9:17 pm

    Hi Sharan Lynn!
    We haven’t made a Nispero Pie before, but will look into it! :D

  • Theo

    July 8, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    So, what part of Guatemala do you live in?

    Is there any fruits/nuts popular on tbe Pacific coastal area?

  • Helga

    July 15, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    Hi Theo! We live in Guatemala City. We have a wide variety of fruits in our country, here is a link we found which we thought you could find interesting: http://bit.ly/29ECbqN
    As far as nuts, you can find local cashews, macadamia and peanuts!
    Thanks for commenting!

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