Guavas: The Mysterious Fruit

As I love most produce, I was extremely excited to take this adventure. Originally, I was going to try star fruit as I had seen them at the HEB near my house. Unfortunately, they do not carry them anymore so I asked the produce man what to try. After going through several different fruits, I settled with Mexican guavas. They come in a box very similar to the ones strawberries are packaged in and had eight guavas in each box. Before I purchased them, I smelled them getting a very sweet fruit smell from the box. If anything, they smelled quite delicious! Once at the checkout, the checker offered me some more advice about them – informing me they taste much like a strawberry and have many seeds in them.

The Mexican guava is between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball with a golden yellow appearance. As I had never tried any guava, I googled how to eat them to make sure I did not eat something that was inedible! I found out that they are extremely healthy, being high in vitamin C and potassium as well as helping with hormone levels and anti-aging.  These were just a few on the list of health benefits of a Mexican guava. They are originally from South America but now are grown in the southern part of the United States, and grow on trees. To eat a guava, it is best to wait until the flesh of a peeled guava is reddish in color then cut in half, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and it is ready to eat. It is also recommended to eat with yogurt, ice cream, or fruit salad with summer being the peak season for this little fruit. (http://www.livestrong.com) For my trial, I decided to eat it by itself to be able to really taste it.

I decided to try my guava at breakfast this morning. I prepared it just as I learned online, except for the peeling part. I forgot that detail! To my surprise, there were a lot more seeds than I imagined, almost the whole fruit was just seeds with only a small amount of actual flesh (the part of the fruit that one eats) around the edges. The seeds consisted of small circular seeds that reminded me a lot of the middle of a cantaloupe, just sized for a guava instead! Since I neglected peel the guava first, it made a little more difficult to eat, but after removing the seeds, I cut the fruit out and tried it. It was very easy to cut into, having a nice soft middle that was smooth but not so slippery it was slipping out of my hand. Giving me promise for the quality of the fruit, I finally tasted it. Quite honestly, I was somewhat disappointed. As yummy as it smelled in the store, the flavor was just not there. It had the consistency much like a pear, and tasted like one too, rather bland and somewhat soft to chew.  It definitely did not taste like a strawberry! While it was not bad, I would not rank it amongst the top of my fruit list.

Even though I was not impressed this go-around, I am excited that I have seven more to try. As I mentioned, the ripest guava is slightly red in the middle, and the one I tried was not. Thinking that I could have gotten an unripe one, I have left them on the counter in hopes of ripening them up, and trying again!