Have you ever done a wine tasting?
You sit, sip wine, and try and figure out what it tastes like.
Well that is how we approached our tropical fruit tasting earlier this week.
Whitney and I had bought three kinds of fruit from the farmers market, and based on yesterday’s post, you can imagine how excited I was to try them.
We gathered together in the kitchen with a pad of paper, and got ready to write our “tasting notes”
Guava, Guanabana, and Passion Fruit
We had three contenders, Passion Fruit, Guava, and Guanabana. First up PassionFruit.
The Passion Fruit
Whitney: Looks like frog eggs, and a booger. It’s kind of sweet, and the seeds are crunchy but sour. All in all not a fantastic consistency
Kate: Starts out good, get bad. Tastes like citrus, and papaya with an after taste of grass. Chewing the seeds actually makes it taste a little better.
Uni: Meh, like a sweet citrusy oyster.
Brad: Something stinks
A fine review if I do say so myself, next up, Guava
Guava time!
Whit: Looks like an apple on steroids. Tastes like a pear with pesky annoying hard seeds. Would be good with no seeds, all in all, okay.
Kate: Hard, seedy, like a woody apple. Tastes like something unripe that my Mom would tell me I’d get the runs from if I ate to much. Probably would be good as a jam
Smit: Yup, that’s guava
Labour intensive!
Well said, well said. And finally, the moment of truth, my beautiful Guanabana. I took my time with this one, carefully cutting it open as per the youtube tutorial. It was much more challenging then I thought. The skin peeled right off, but the seeds were embedded deep in the pulpy meat. I spent quite a bit of time pushing the seeds out of the meat, and still missed a couple.
As I dissected the mass, everyone gathered around, expressing their clear disgust of the mound of white gunk I was about to force them to eat.
The infamous Guanabana
Whitney: Looks like terrible tastes like terrible, I just couldn’t keep it down. (note: Whitney spat hers out)
Kate: Looks like sheep intestines, cud, or cooked mushy watery white fish. Tastes like citrus, strawberries, and passion fruit. I love it!
Smit: It’s like sushi
Uni: It’s the chewing tobacco of fruit.
Shaun: Looks like white vomit that is all stuck together. Surprisingly citrusy considering it’s bland appearance.
The tasting in progress.
So there you have it, the epic fruit taste test. A wonderful way to end the year.
Some were more successful then others. I’ll certainly be buying Guanabana again in the future!
And even with everyone’s mixed opinions, once we threw everything in the blender, and added vodka and ice, we gave everything rave reviews!
SOOO good!
What kind of crazy fruit have you tried? Ever had guanabana?
Pura Vida!
Kate
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Hostels and Hot Rollers 
I don’t like guanabana at all. My neighbors made a nice drink – put it in the blender with milk, sugar and ice and it still tasted bad to me. Passion fruit though, oh yes. I put it in a strainer and mush it around to get out the juice, and then add that to other fruit juice. I had a passion fruit vine in Florida and mixed it with fresh squeezed orange juice and that is wonderful! Guava is also good for juice and jam.
Funny – everyone around here when you ask them what they do with that fruit, the answer is almost always – put it in the blender with water, ice and sugar to make a drink. I think they make drinks with guanabana rather than eat it plain.
It is so fun to try all the new fruits and veggies! Have you tried guandu (pigeon peas)? They are a huge deal in Panama and a must for Christmas dinner – rice and guandu, sometimes with coconut milk. A lot of people grow them in their yards here.