Tuesday, June 23, 2009

J is for JOCOTE MARAÑON


For those of you following the ABC Series you might have noticed I skipped the I. I am still working on the pictures so I will get back to it later....

J is for Jocote Marañon. This particular fruit has two uses. One of them comes from its seed, by the shape you might have already recognized it: the cashew! It has always amazed me how many jocotes are needed to fill one of those jars of cashews we buy at Sam´s.

Seeing a tree full of jocotes morañones is fascinating, the jocotes marañones come in bunches, the cashew part grows first then the fruit. The leaves are rubbery like, with a shiny green look. According to an article on Prensa Libre each tree gives about 2000 fruits per year at a price of Q1.00 each (12 cents of a dollar) but by bulk at Q0.40 each (o.05 cents of a dollar). See a photo gallery here.

In Guatemala the fruit itself is used frequently, mostly to make a drink out of it. Place the Jocote in the blender, add water and sugar. The taste of it is a little bit grainy and the acidity and tartness tends to crack the tongue but the taste makes it worthwhile, somewhat like pineapple that you can only eat a certain amount before your tongue resents it.


Posts part of the series A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.


3 comments:

Ceci Vasquez said...

El domingo vi un documental en Travel & Living de una fabrica de Cashwes en Phuket, Thailand, los hacen con los sabores mas diversos que te puedes imaginar... se me antojaron todos!!!!

Nancy said...

Adoro las semillas de marañón y los jocotes de marañón. MMMMMMMMMMMMM delicioso.

Mama Bear said...

So interesting, I never ever would have guess that about the cashew!!!