A New Fruit: Guayaba (Guava to You)

I must admit, I have tasted a guayaba before the other day. But, I didn't realize that until I cut into it. And, I have only had it once before with Wil.

Anyway, when I wrote that it is guava to you in the title, you may be expecting a pinkish reddish fruit. But this one is different.


This is also sometimes called the apple guava, you can see why. It is related to, but different than the strawberry guava, the one I am more familiar with, at least in wonderful juice form in The States.

I chose one that was ridged and bumpy because I thought it had character. The first thing that I noticed about this guayaba was the smell. It has a bright, citrusy fragrance, even before you cut the fruit. The peel is similar to a pear, and apparently in several non-Spanish speaking countries it is referred to as a pera, the Spanish word for pear (can we say colonization?).


To me, it also tasted very pearlike with some apple thrown in for fun. It is not citrusy tasting to me. It has a wonderful crisp tartness to it. I enjoyed this fruit quite a lot. I actually ate the whole fruit, which I'm a little ashamed to admit I have not done with several of the other "new fruits."


Though I chopped through a lot of the seeds, I saved some and am considering being a bit of a "Joel fre Guayabaseed" (Johnny Appleseed). The apple guava (my guayaba) are allegedly cold tolerant to fairly cold temperatures, and I know a little gardener with a greenhouse who likes to experiment with unusual seeds. "Oh my gosh, customs official, there are seeds in the bottom of my socks in my suitcase. Oh, how gross! I knew I shouldh't have walked around in them on that beach!" If I bat my eyelashes, do you think that will work? What would my excuse be for the zapote seeds?? HA!