Guava

A review of Fruit #7 on my quest for trying a new fruit every week.



Uniqueness: The idea of the guava is unique--a cross between a pear and a strawberry in taste. The consistency is grainy like that of a pear and the flavor is also reminscent of a sweet and juicy strawberry. The fruit itself is petite like a kiwi or (in twos) like a nice compact set of testes. And the scent of them as they ripen is the best part--it may actually be worth buying one just to keep it around for the smell until it goes bad.

Flavor and consistency: Hearkening back to my experience with the papaya, I am not quite sure whether or not the ones I've tried have been ripe enough. I am on my last attempt out of four but am waiting until it's so ripe that it's almost smushy so that I can judge if it's a ripeness factor or not. That being said, the consistency of the meat is much like a pear--if not sufficiently ripe, it is NOT good at all (unripe pears--yuck too). And since I've only had potentially not-quite-ripe ones so far, I'd have to say that both the flavor and consistency haven't been too fantastic thus far. But I DO plan to give them one last shot. I've had fruit drinks with guava in them before, and it SEEMS to be a very yummy flavor.

Healthiness: Apparently the guava is one of the healthiest fruits you can eat. They have a very high level of antioxidants which is a good thing. The rind contains about 5 times the Vitamin C of your standard orange. The list goes on and on: READ MORE.

Ease of consumption: Slice it in two, scoop out the seeds, eat it like you would a kiwi or peel off the skin and dice it. Allegedly the seeds are edible as well, but when I bit into some last night, they were VERY hard and I had NO desire to battle with them.

Complaints: Again, annoyingness of ripening--I always read about my fruit before ripening them so that I get it fairly exact, but yet again, I've followed the ripening directions and they STILL aren't very good. So either I'm not ripening them correctly, or guavas aren't quite so good raw as they are in fruit drinks and jams. Price-wise, I got 4 of them for about $1.60 which isn't too terrible. But quantity-wise, you don't seem to get much out of them--think about how much meat a kiwi would yield if you had to scoop seeds out of the center before consuming it and that's about how much you get out of a guava.

Overall: Like I said, worth it if for nothing else but the smell which is DELICIOUS. But as for the taste, I could take it or leave it.

Grade: D (A for scent though)

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