December 21, 2024 • 25 mins
This fragrant fruit brings bright flavor to cocktails, pastries, and far more. Anney and Lauren dig into the botany and history of guavas.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of Iyheart Radio. I'm
Annie Resa and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Lauren Bogelbaum, and today we have an episode for you
about guava.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, was there any particular reason this was on your mind, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Nope, nope, it's been on the list, And it did
sound like nice and tropical and bright, and I think
at the time I was just kind of like hugging
mugs of tea to keep myself warm, and I was like,
that sounds let's think about that for a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, yeah, let's think about that for a minute. I
don't think I have much experience with guava. I think
I've had it in like pastries, and I think I've
had like guava juice, but that might be it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I've definitely had it in like cocktail juice kind
of situations. And you know, I lived for a bunch
of years in South Florida, which of course has a
lot of Cuban influence, and so like, I am still
strongly biased towards guava as like a filling or flavoring
for things like if there is a guava choice on
(01:11):
a bakery menu or better yet, like a guava and
cream cheese choice. That's probably what I'm gonna order. M.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yes, well, you can see our past episodes on other
fruit we've done, but also cream cheese. Sure, yeah, yeah, sure,
it is a pairing many people enjoyed. Uh huh. But
I guess that brings us to our question. Yeah, guava,
what is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Guavas are a category of tropical fruits that range in
size and color, but you're basically looking at like a juicy,
fleshy to pulpy, sweet tart fruit with this lovely fruity, floral,
musky kind of scent and flavor. They can look like
anything from a grape to a pair have a sort
(02:02):
of thinish skin, and can be eaten fresh when they're green, yellow,
white and crunchy or pink red, purple and softer. Or
the fruit can be canned, frozen, or dried, or juiced
or pulped and made into all kinds of things juices, syrups,
jams and jellies, sweetened paste, candies, alcohol. It can be
used to flavor sweet or savory drinks or dishes of
(02:23):
all kinds, and that paste format is very popular as
a candy or as a filling in baked goods, depending
on how dense you make it. The leaves are sometimes
used in mostly medicinal teas and stuff like that. But yeah,
guavas are just nice little bundles of sunny flavored joy,
though they can also be invasive. Eating them is like
(02:45):
taking a bright, bracing hike through a warm forest. And
the plants themselves are sort of like a tropical frappuccino,
Like they're objectively tasty. But did we need so many
places to get one all on the same block? Like?
Are they choking out native tasty things? They might be problematic?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, guava, come in and open all your fro yo shops,
all right?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
If we have one in the kroger, does there also
need to be one in the target. And then if
there's already those two in the same plaza, does there
need to be a free standing guava? I don't know.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Deep questions about guava we must consider.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh, but okay, So guava plants are these like evergreen
large shrubs to small trees in the myrtle family. The
guava genus Cidium, that's what the ps at the front,
contains several similar species, the fruit of which we all
commonly call guavas. Sometimes with descriptors based on like their
size or shape or color, like like lemon guava, apple guava,
(03:57):
strawberry guava. There are also a lot of varieties that
have been bred for different kinds of fruit, and today
I am excluding fruit of other genera that are sometimes
called guavas, like pineapple guava or Australian native guava just
for clarity's sake in this episode, like those are going
to have to be separate episodes. It is a tropical
(04:21):
too subtropical plant that will not survive below freezing temperatures.
It can have multiple trunks and usually grows only about
like twenty feet in height at the max that's about
six meters. The trunk or trunks will be greenish brown
in color and kind of like papery modeled. Yeah. The
green leaves are oblong and largish, maybe like seven inches
(04:42):
or eighteen centimeters, with these rows of veins making a
pretty V shaped towards the center of the leaf. Yeah.
The leaves are edible, again, used in teas or sometimes
as an herb in cooking. Wile plants do not grow
true from the seed, so they're usually propagated via stem
cuttings or graftings. Or similar. They bloom in a small,
fragrant white flowers with long yellow stamens, or sometimes in
(05:05):
like pink and white flowers, either singly or in small groups,
and pretty much always on the trees newer growth, which
I find fascinating. If pollinated, which is usually by insects
like bees, a fruit will develop. Guavas are botanically berries.
They range in size and shape from a large round
grape to a sort of medium lemonar lime to maybe
(05:27):
a smallish, slightly squished apple or kind of pair sized
pear shape.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
They have a peel that can be thick or thin,
bumpy or smooth, and range from green to yellow to
red in color. When you harvest them, the skin is edible,
but can be more like chewy or sour than you
might really want if you're eating it fresh. It's a
personal preference. The flesh inside can range from white to yellow,
to pink to red and sort of modeled versions of
(05:56):
all of those colors, and it'll often contain many small,
ownish seeds in its core. The flavor can vary, too,
from sweet to tart, and from mild to like very
strongly floral tropical musky like you can put a couple
in a bowl and perfume a whole room with them.
Some of the white and yellow types are eaten when
(06:18):
they're unripe and more crispy. Some of the pink and
red types are more usually eaten ripe and softer. And yeah,
you can eat the fruit fresh, like, just like cut
it up or spoon it right out of the rind.
They're fairly delicate, though so until pretty recently it's been
a bit difficult to find outside of the places like
the countries and kind of areas where they're grown. You
(06:40):
can also process the fruit into all dank kinds of
things guava ice cream, guava barbecue, sauce. I don't know.
The most popular guava product around the world is indeed,
that that sweetened guava paste, sometimes called guava cheese or
by various other names. It can be anywhere from like
(07:01):
soft and pretty jam like to really firm, like you
need a knife to cut it. But you know, it's
basically like a petato fruit, like dense and sweet, and
anywhere from like bouncy to sort of melty, and can
be eaten by itself as a candy or used as
a pastry filling or in other desserts. The wood is
also used for various purposes, but perhaps especially for smoking meats. Yeah,
(07:26):
like get you like a like a like a guava barbecue,
going with like yeah, with the wood, and then use
a guava barbecue sauce. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Make a guava slow I could see ooh yeah. Oh man,
Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know, it's got a lot of micronutrients. A punch
of fiber can have a bunch of sugar. You know,
all fruit is good for you, Like, don't eat too
much of it. And also if you cut it with
equal parts sugar like that, that's a different thing at
that point.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Traditionally, several cultures have used different parts of guava plants
for different medicinal purposes. But you know, saber motto, bodies
are complicated, more nutrition is complicated, more research is necessary,
and before you ingest medicinal amounts of anything, you should
check with a doctor who is not us. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
We do have some numbers for you, we do.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, So there are something like sixty to one hundred
species in the genus Cidium, depending on who you ask,
there are around four hundred varietals within those species. In
the right climate conditions and with the right farming techniques,
guava can be harvested at least twice a year and
sometimes year round and up to some eighty pounds or
(08:52):
like thirty six kilos per tree per year. Okay, this
next number is really infuriating. So I think the global
production of guava is around fifty million metric tons. But
but I've seen this really weird range. Like the numbers
are either right around there or right around like four
(09:12):
to five million metric tons. So that's a difference of
a factor of at least ten. So like that's weird,
and basically I cannot get to the bottom of it
without paying a bunch of money for different reports and books,
which I'm just not going to do today. So here
we are, like the winter holidays are upon us. Uh Like, oh,
(09:32):
as an editor, this has driving me really baddy because
like maybe the lower number is referring to like a
specific species or maybe maybe somewhere like one of the
like root sources no pun intended, got misquoted by a
factor of ten. I don't know. Yeah, mysteries mysteries of
the present, since at any rate, India produces by far
(09:59):
the most, right around fifty percent. Other big producers include Brazil, Indonesia, China,
and Mexico. Apparently the Middle East region is the biggest importer.
And there is a Guinness record for the largest ever
piece of guava paste candy. It was achieved in Brazil
(10:19):
in the year two thousand, so it's gone uncontested for
a long time now. And it weighed one two hundred
and twenty three pounds, which is five hundred and fifty
five kilos.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, yeah, I don't have a good idea of how
big that is because that's that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It's a lot. It's a lot, and no one's ever
been like, we'll just let you have that one. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're like, okay, yep, done.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Cool, I understand, I understand. Well, we do have quite history.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
For you, oh we do, and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsors, and
we're back.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, Okay. So, based on
archaeological evidence, experts believe that the guava tree was domesticated
around five thousand years ago in South America. From there
it spread up to Central America and to the Caribbean islands.
By eight hundred BCE, people in Peru were eating guava
(11:29):
and people in Mexico were eating it six centuries later,
spread by humans, birds, and other wildlife. However, there is
ongoing research and debate about the exact origins of guava. Yeah,
this is so fun.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So people apparently love arguing about when and where exactly
in central to South America guava first developed and were
later domesticated and spread based on like fossil evidence from
tens of millions of years ago and archaeological evidence from
around seven thousand years ago. And I love this for them,
you know, like, h so cool, okay, but whatever, it's
(12:08):
distant past which we are still ironing out. The fruit
was being pretty widely used throughout most of Central and
South America and the Caribbean by about one thousand CE.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and guava spread alongside colonization in
the fourteen and fifteen hundreds. The first known European observation
of the fruit was documented by a Spaniard who encountered
guava in Haiti in fifteen twenty six. Several other European
records from this time described guava observations in Central and
South America and how the fruit are berry every time,
(12:44):
and Lee's were used medicinally and as food and drink.
Some of the earliest accounts were not in favor of guavo,
but over time they seemed to shift to largely positive,
like people were like, no, actually, this is really good.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah. I think there was like an early like description
from a Franciscan monk that was like, this is disgusting.
It smells like an insect.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, what is up? But then loosely translated yeah, yes, loosely.
This is also around the time the word guava was
first used to describe guava, of this fruit. And if
this was a different show, we would do a whole
etymology thing here, because of they's a bunch of different
(13:26):
names for guava, and they all kind of came about
around this time, and it kind of a mess, to
be honest, kind of a mess. Yes, thanks a lot, language,
how dare you. By the seventeenth century, guava was introduced
to India and the Philippines. Places all over the world,
from China to South Africa adapted guava as something not
(13:49):
just to eat or to drink, but something used medicinally.
Sometime in the early seventeen hundreds, artist and naturalist Marius
Baila Marion drew illustrations of guava and I actually found
them quite striking. Oh yeah, so check that out. Carlinaeus
described guava in seventeen fifty three, naming it after the
(14:10):
Greek word for pomegranate, the scientific name, and mistakenly attributing
it as Asian from Asia. Yeah, so that caused a
little confusion. By the nineteenth century, strawberry guava was present
in Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Guala might have been introduced there much earlier, like by
the sixteen hundreds, or maybe different species were introduced at
different times, but either way, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
A nineteen seventeen report described seven different species and forms
of guava on the islands of Hawaii, warning that they
were quote serious pest with all the attributes essential for aggression,
and as a strawberry guava spread it has been somewhat
of a problem, attracting feral pigs and non native fruit flies.
Increasingly concerned about the damage being done to the Hawaiian ecosystem,
(15:00):
a group of scientists and conservationists came together to brainstorm solutions.
After years of research, they were granted the right to
introduce Brazil's scale insect because it attack, because it attacks
and slows the growth of only strawberry guava trees. Yes. However,
some local farmers opposed the idea because guava jams and
(15:23):
other products were economically valuable, and because over the years
strawberry guava had been increasingly adapted into their culture. Oh yeah, yeah, yep.
In the US, the first believed commercial planting of guava
took place in Florida in nineteen twelve. The local indigenous
people had cultivated it long before that, and it had
been introduced to Florida long before that. It was just
(15:44):
the commercialization whoo yay. Around the time Fidel Casho took
over Cuba, Cubans were eating pastries with guava and cream
cheese that they brought with them to Miami, which is yes,
a very popular combo to this day. And I found
several articles talking about how fuve there. It is so good. Yes,
(16:06):
And again the numbers are a little messy, but it
does appear that in the past decade or so, guava
production has skyrocketed around the world. It did get that
super food health label in a lot of places. On
top of that, there has been an increased interest in
guava research. Yeah. Yeah, Like we said, people like to
(16:29):
fight about it. They have grass that I looked at
and I was like, I'm not sure. Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, And I mean, like I really hate the words superfood,
as I have complained about on this show before. I
think that food food is kind of super when you
think about it in general, and labeling a particular thing
a superfood isn't necessarily good for you or that food
because like it has to be made by people, and
(16:56):
those people are already doing what they can and maybe
can't handle a huge uptake just because something has suddenly
become you know, like TikTok popular. But but yeah, yeah,
I mean it's cool that more people are getting exposed
to a thing that they might not have ever had before. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, And it does have a lot of a lot
of applications. Oh yeah. So for shore our listeners, we
would love to hear from you if you have recipes,
favorite uses for guava. Oh yes, please let us know.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yes, but that seems to be what we have to
say about guava for now. We do already have some
listener mail for you though, and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
one more quick break forward from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listeners.
I was really off tune for the first like half
of that.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Sorry, guys, it's all right. We're both behind the curtains.
Larn and I are both tired today. So yeah, I
think if we managed to do something that wasn't completely
terrible and even so, you know what, sometimes it's fun
to just lead into the mess. Neither of us have
a musical background. That's true, That is true. Although I
(18:33):
have decided I'm going to try to embrace my lower
register karaoke. Oh I love that. Yeah, yeah, I'm going
to try it. We tried to go higher than I
can low I can try. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. We
have some notes about candy. Oh yeah, yes. Kelsey wrote
(18:54):
quick note for Annie, just letting you know I hear
you on the oreole cream. For me, it is a
texture thing. I can handle the frosting along with the cookie,
but licking the icing separately from the cookie is appalling
for me. That is you do you icing liquors and
double stuffed? Absolutely not. I would love to see Oreos
(19:16):
come out with half stuffed. They do have fins, but
the cookies are proportionately reduced along with the cream for
those unnecessary further candy talk. Unlike M and m's tagline
of melts in your mouth, not in your hand, which
is a great feature to highlight Smarties, the Canadian version
went with do you eat the red one's last in retrospect?
(19:41):
Weird choice. What they should have asked was do you
look the candy and use it as makeup? Because for
my friends and I, the answer would be a resounding yes.
I when one hundred percent sorted them by color for eating,
but I saved purple for lass. I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Wow, I we I don't think my friends and I
ever thought to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I don't think I thought to use it as wikim No.
I did sort by color, but it was more faves
based favorite color. That's cool though.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Also yeah, creative, yeah, creative, and yes, the really weird
choice for advertising that is strange, like weirdly specific. I'm like, Okay,
that's not the first question I would have thought of,
but sure, sure.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, I'm kind of curious. I'm kind of curious if
that was the thing that I just don't know about.
But yes, thank you for oreo agreement. I am with
you on all of this. M It's hard to find
(20:56):
someone who's on the same page. Yeah, yeah, I don't think.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I don't think I gave the last time we were
talking about this, I don't think I gave my opinion.
I like, eat one cookie first, and then I eat
the icing, and then I eat the second cookies. Sometimes
I'll eat the icing with the second cookie, but usually
it's like in those layers and the cookie is my
favorite part. But I'm not mad at the icing because
I'm like, oh, sugar.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Rush, I like this method. Yeah, got a method. Yeah,
I think everyone has a method. I think you're right
or this is a very method heavy cookie.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Speaking of methods, Okay, Michelle wrote, I recently listened to
the Almond Joy Mounds episode and I just had to
write in you were talking about favorite candies and I
didn't hear mine mentioned.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Haha.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I'm not really surprised. There are a lot of candy brands.
When I was a kid, I really loved the root
beer barrels, the hard candy they are so good. I
still enjoy them. Yummy. Those caramels that are called bold
Sometimes they have some kind of like white cream stuff
in the center of a kind of wonky ring of caramel.
Mint meltaways so good, and Andy's Mints. But if I'm
(22:11):
in a candy aisle and have to choose, most times
I'm buying a Three Musketeers bar, and I eat them
so weirdly too. I kind of break them apart from
one end with my fingers and really savor all the bites.
Sometimes I break off a bit of chocolate or some
newgat They're fun. Thanks so much for all the podcasts.
I've been listening to you both for so so long,
and every time I write in and you read my email,
(22:31):
I feel so special. You're amazing. Oh thank you. By
the way, I'm an author and was recently laid off
from my day job. I'm on a journey to be
a full time writer of fantasy and science fiction. If
you feel so inclined to take a gander at my website,
I thank you. If you like what you see, please
share it. I know it's a huge ask, but you
can't get a yes without asking, right and her website
(22:53):
url is Michelle Kits dot com m I C h
E L l e k t Z. So yes, we
would love to share it because heck yes, science fiction
and fantasy writing and heck yes, branching out on your
own a.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Little bit to do it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, yeah, you know, even if you didn't intend to
do so originally, right, we all know how that feels.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes, yes, so thank you for sharing. Also, I adore
how many of these candies I have not heard of?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Oh really, Oh man, I know what all of those are.
I feel like I feel like some. I feel like
some of those are more like Northern candies and Southern
candies in terms of the United States, because I definitely
grew up with all of those. I don't really prefer
hard candy because it always makes my mouth sore and like,
oh why is my candy cutting me? This doesn't enjoy
(23:53):
this relationship. The root your flavored stuff is always a when. Yeah.
Those caramels with the weird chalk it's not chalky, but
the weird like creamy whites. Yes, those are so good.
The bull's eyes, I love those. They make, the long
ones that are called cowtails. Oh oh, I love them.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Mint melt aways were something that my grandparents always had
on hand, always, always, always, always, and I don't think
I ever really enjoyed them, but I would eat them
for the melting, for the melting texture.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
And then yeah Andy Spence classic classic.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I know those and I know Three Musketeers are I
do like that you had a very specific method of
eating it to savor it.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, I would do stuff like that too. My friends
used to make fun of me because I would eat
chocolate chips one at a time.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Uh huh, I just one, just one? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much to both of these
listeners for writing it. M H. If you would like
to write to us, you can our emails hello at
saverpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter,
moving into blue Sky, Facebook and Instagram at saber pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Saver is
a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(25:27):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of Iyheart Radio. I'm
Annie Resa and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Lauren Bogelbaum, and today we have an episode for you
about guava.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, was there any particular reason this was on your mind, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Nope, nope, it's been on the list, And it did
sound like nice and tropical and bright, and I think
at the time I was just kind of like hugging
mugs of tea to keep myself warm, and I was like,
that sounds let's think about that for a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, yeah, let's think about that for a minute. I
don't think I have much experience with guava. I think
I've had it in like pastries, and I think I've
had like guava juice, but that might be it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I've definitely had it in like cocktail juice kind
of situations. And you know, I lived for a bunch
of years in South Florida, which of course has a
lot of Cuban influence, and so like, I am still
strongly biased towards guava as like a filling or flavoring
for things like if there is a guava choice on
(01:11):
a bakery menu or better yet, like a guava and
cream cheese choice. That's probably what I'm gonna order. M.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yes, well, you can see our past episodes on other
fruit we've done, but also cream cheese. Sure, yeah, yeah, sure,
it is a pairing many people enjoyed. Uh huh. But
I guess that brings us to our question. Yeah, guava,
what is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Guavas are a category of tropical fruits that range in
size and color, but you're basically looking at like a juicy,
fleshy to pulpy, sweet tart fruit with this lovely fruity, floral,
musky kind of scent and flavor. They can look like
anything from a grape to a pair have a sort
(02:02):
of thinish skin, and can be eaten fresh when they're green, yellow,
white and crunchy or pink red, purple and softer. Or
the fruit can be canned, frozen, or dried, or juiced
or pulped and made into all kinds of things juices, syrups,
jams and jellies, sweetened paste, candies, alcohol. It can be
used to flavor sweet or savory drinks or dishes of
(02:23):
all kinds, and that paste format is very popular as
a candy or as a filling in baked goods, depending
on how dense you make it. The leaves are sometimes
used in mostly medicinal teas and stuff like that. But yeah,
guavas are just nice little bundles of sunny flavored joy,
though they can also be invasive. Eating them is like
(02:45):
taking a bright, bracing hike through a warm forest. And
the plants themselves are sort of like a tropical frappuccino,
Like they're objectively tasty. But did we need so many
places to get one all on the same block? Like?
Are they choking out native tasty things? They might be problematic?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, guava, come in and open all your fro yo shops,
all right?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
If we have one in the kroger, does there also
need to be one in the target. And then if
there's already those two in the same plaza, does there
need to be a free standing guava? I don't know.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Deep questions about guava we must consider.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh, but okay, So guava plants are these like evergreen
large shrubs to small trees in the myrtle family. The
guava genus Cidium, that's what the ps at the front,
contains several similar species, the fruit of which we all
commonly call guavas. Sometimes with descriptors based on like their
size or shape or color, like like lemon guava, apple guava,
(03:57):
strawberry guava. There are also a lot of varieties that
have been bred for different kinds of fruit, and today
I am excluding fruit of other genera that are sometimes
called guavas, like pineapple guava or Australian native guava just
for clarity's sake in this episode, like those are going
to have to be separate episodes. It is a tropical
(04:21):
too subtropical plant that will not survive below freezing temperatures.
It can have multiple trunks and usually grows only about
like twenty feet in height at the max that's about
six meters. The trunk or trunks will be greenish brown
in color and kind of like papery modeled. Yeah. The
green leaves are oblong and largish, maybe like seven inches
(04:42):
or eighteen centimeters, with these rows of veins making a
pretty V shaped towards the center of the leaf. Yeah.
The leaves are edible, again, used in teas or sometimes
as an herb in cooking. Wile plants do not grow
true from the seed, so they're usually propagated via stem
cuttings or graftings. Or similar. They bloom in a small,
fragrant white flowers with long yellow stamens, or sometimes in
(05:05):
like pink and white flowers, either singly or in small groups,
and pretty much always on the trees newer growth, which
I find fascinating. If pollinated, which is usually by insects
like bees, a fruit will develop. Guavas are botanically berries.
They range in size and shape from a large round
grape to a sort of medium lemonar lime to maybe
(05:27):
a smallish, slightly squished apple or kind of pair sized
pear shape.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
They have a peel that can be thick or thin,
bumpy or smooth, and range from green to yellow to
red in color. When you harvest them, the skin is edible,
but can be more like chewy or sour than you
might really want if you're eating it fresh. It's a
personal preference. The flesh inside can range from white to yellow,
to pink to red and sort of modeled versions of
(05:56):
all of those colors, and it'll often contain many small,
ownish seeds in its core. The flavor can vary, too,
from sweet to tart, and from mild to like very
strongly floral tropical musky like you can put a couple
in a bowl and perfume a whole room with them.
Some of the white and yellow types are eaten when
(06:18):
they're unripe and more crispy. Some of the pink and
red types are more usually eaten ripe and softer. And yeah,
you can eat the fruit fresh, like, just like cut
it up or spoon it right out of the rind.
They're fairly delicate, though so until pretty recently it's been
a bit difficult to find outside of the places like
the countries and kind of areas where they're grown. You
(06:40):
can also process the fruit into all dank kinds of
things guava ice cream, guava barbecue, sauce. I don't know.
The most popular guava product around the world is indeed,
that that sweetened guava paste, sometimes called guava cheese or
by various other names. It can be anywhere from like
(07:01):
soft and pretty jam like to really firm, like you
need a knife to cut it. But you know, it's
basically like a petato fruit, like dense and sweet, and
anywhere from like bouncy to sort of melty, and can
be eaten by itself as a candy or used as
a pastry filling or in other desserts. The wood is
also used for various purposes, but perhaps especially for smoking meats. Yeah,
(07:26):
like get you like a like a like a guava barbecue,
going with like yeah, with the wood, and then use
a guava barbecue sauce. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Make a guava slow I could see ooh yeah. Oh man,
Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know, it's got a lot of micronutrients. A punch
of fiber can have a bunch of sugar. You know,
all fruit is good for you, Like, don't eat too
much of it. And also if you cut it with
equal parts sugar like that, that's a different thing at
that point.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Traditionally, several cultures have used different parts of guava plants
for different medicinal purposes. But you know, saber motto, bodies
are complicated, more nutrition is complicated, more research is necessary,
and before you ingest medicinal amounts of anything, you should
check with a doctor who is not us. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
We do have some numbers for you, we do.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, So there are something like sixty to one hundred
species in the genus Cidium, depending on who you ask,
there are around four hundred varietals within those species. In
the right climate conditions and with the right farming techniques,
guava can be harvested at least twice a year and
sometimes year round and up to some eighty pounds or
(08:52):
like thirty six kilos per tree per year. Okay, this
next number is really infuriating. So I think the global
production of guava is around fifty million metric tons. But
but I've seen this really weird range. Like the numbers
are either right around there or right around like four
(09:12):
to five million metric tons. So that's a difference of
a factor of at least ten. So like that's weird,
and basically I cannot get to the bottom of it
without paying a bunch of money for different reports and books,
which I'm just not going to do today. So here
we are, like the winter holidays are upon us. Uh Like, oh,
(09:32):
as an editor, this has driving me really baddy because
like maybe the lower number is referring to like a
specific species or maybe maybe somewhere like one of the
like root sources no pun intended, got misquoted by a
factor of ten. I don't know. Yeah, mysteries mysteries of
the present, since at any rate, India produces by far
(09:59):
the most, right around fifty percent. Other big producers include Brazil, Indonesia, China,
and Mexico. Apparently the Middle East region is the biggest importer.
And there is a Guinness record for the largest ever
piece of guava paste candy. It was achieved in Brazil
(10:19):
in the year two thousand, so it's gone uncontested for
a long time now. And it weighed one two hundred
and twenty three pounds, which is five hundred and fifty
five kilos.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, yeah, I don't have a good idea of how
big that is because that's that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It's a lot. It's a lot, and no one's ever
been like, we'll just let you have that one. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're like, okay, yep, done.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Cool, I understand, I understand. Well, we do have quite history.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
For you, oh we do, and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsors, and
we're back.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, Okay. So, based on
archaeological evidence, experts believe that the guava tree was domesticated
around five thousand years ago in South America. From there
it spread up to Central America and to the Caribbean islands.
By eight hundred BCE, people in Peru were eating guava
(11:29):
and people in Mexico were eating it six centuries later,
spread by humans, birds, and other wildlife. However, there is
ongoing research and debate about the exact origins of guava. Yeah,
this is so fun.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So people apparently love arguing about when and where exactly
in central to South America guava first developed and were
later domesticated and spread based on like fossil evidence from
tens of millions of years ago and archaeological evidence from
around seven thousand years ago. And I love this for them,
you know, like, h so cool, okay, but whatever, it's
(12:08):
distant past which we are still ironing out. The fruit
was being pretty widely used throughout most of Central and
South America and the Caribbean by about one thousand CE.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and guava spread alongside colonization in
the fourteen and fifteen hundreds. The first known European observation
of the fruit was documented by a Spaniard who encountered
guava in Haiti in fifteen twenty six. Several other European
records from this time described guava observations in Central and
South America and how the fruit are berry every time,
(12:44):
and Lee's were used medicinally and as food and drink.
Some of the earliest accounts were not in favor of guavo,
but over time they seemed to shift to largely positive,
like people were like, no, actually, this is really good.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah. I think there was like an early like description
from a Franciscan monk that was like, this is disgusting.
It smells like an insect.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, what is up? But then loosely translated yeah, yes, loosely.
This is also around the time the word guava was
first used to describe guava, of this fruit. And if
this was a different show, we would do a whole
etymology thing here, because of they's a bunch of different
(13:26):
names for guava, and they all kind of came about
around this time, and it kind of a mess, to
be honest, kind of a mess. Yes, thanks a lot, language,
how dare you. By the seventeenth century, guava was introduced
to India and the Philippines. Places all over the world,
from China to South Africa adapted guava as something not
(13:49):
just to eat or to drink, but something used medicinally.
Sometime in the early seventeen hundreds, artist and naturalist Marius
Baila Marion drew illustrations of guava and I actually found
them quite striking. Oh yeah, so check that out. Carlinaeus
described guava in seventeen fifty three, naming it after the
(14:10):
Greek word for pomegranate, the scientific name, and mistakenly attributing
it as Asian from Asia. Yeah, so that caused a
little confusion. By the nineteenth century, strawberry guava was present
in Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Guala might have been introduced there much earlier, like by
the sixteen hundreds, or maybe different species were introduced at
different times, but either way, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
A nineteen seventeen report described seven different species and forms
of guava on the islands of Hawaii, warning that they
were quote serious pest with all the attributes essential for aggression,
and as a strawberry guava spread it has been somewhat
of a problem, attracting feral pigs and non native fruit flies.
Increasingly concerned about the damage being done to the Hawaiian ecosystem,
(15:00):
a group of scientists and conservationists came together to brainstorm solutions.
After years of research, they were granted the right to
introduce Brazil's scale insect because it attack, because it attacks
and slows the growth of only strawberry guava trees. Yes. However,
some local farmers opposed the idea because guava jams and
(15:23):
other products were economically valuable, and because over the years
strawberry guava had been increasingly adapted into their culture. Oh yeah, yeah, yep.
In the US, the first believed commercial planting of guava
took place in Florida in nineteen twelve. The local indigenous
people had cultivated it long before that, and it had
been introduced to Florida long before that. It was just
(15:44):
the commercialization whoo yay. Around the time Fidel Casho took
over Cuba, Cubans were eating pastries with guava and cream
cheese that they brought with them to Miami, which is yes,
a very popular combo to this day. And I found
several articles talking about how fuve there. It is so good. Yes,
(16:06):
And again the numbers are a little messy, but it
does appear that in the past decade or so, guava
production has skyrocketed around the world. It did get that
super food health label in a lot of places. On
top of that, there has been an increased interest in
guava research. Yeah. Yeah, Like we said, people like to
(16:29):
fight about it. They have grass that I looked at
and I was like, I'm not sure. Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, And I mean, like I really hate the words superfood,
as I have complained about on this show before. I
think that food food is kind of super when you
think about it in general, and labeling a particular thing
a superfood isn't necessarily good for you or that food
because like it has to be made by people, and
(16:56):
those people are already doing what they can and maybe
can't handle a huge uptake just because something has suddenly
become you know, like TikTok popular. But but yeah, yeah,
I mean it's cool that more people are getting exposed
to a thing that they might not have ever had before. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, And it does have a lot of a lot
of applications. Oh yeah. So for shore our listeners, we
would love to hear from you if you have recipes,
favorite uses for guava. Oh yes, please let us know.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yes, but that seems to be what we have to
say about guava for now. We do already have some
listener mail for you though, and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
one more quick break forward from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listeners.
I was really off tune for the first like half
of that.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Sorry, guys, it's all right. We're both behind the curtains.
Larn and I are both tired today. So yeah, I
think if we managed to do something that wasn't completely
terrible and even so, you know what, sometimes it's fun
to just lead into the mess. Neither of us have
a musical background. That's true, That is true. Although I
(18:33):
have decided I'm going to try to embrace my lower
register karaoke. Oh I love that. Yeah, yeah, I'm going
to try it. We tried to go higher than I
can low I can try. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. We
have some notes about candy. Oh yeah, yes. Kelsey wrote
(18:54):
quick note for Annie, just letting you know I hear
you on the oreole cream. For me, it is a
texture thing. I can handle the frosting along with the cookie,
but licking the icing separately from the cookie is appalling
for me. That is you do you icing liquors and
double stuffed? Absolutely not. I would love to see Oreos
(19:16):
come out with half stuffed. They do have fins, but
the cookies are proportionately reduced along with the cream for
those unnecessary further candy talk. Unlike M and m's tagline
of melts in your mouth, not in your hand, which
is a great feature to highlight Smarties, the Canadian version
went with do you eat the red one's last in retrospect?
(19:41):
Weird choice. What they should have asked was do you
look the candy and use it as makeup? Because for
my friends and I, the answer would be a resounding yes.
I when one hundred percent sorted them by color for eating,
but I saved purple for lass. I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Wow, I we I don't think my friends and I
ever thought to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I don't think I thought to use it as wikim No.
I did sort by color, but it was more faves
based favorite color. That's cool though.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Also yeah, creative, yeah, creative, and yes, the really weird
choice for advertising that is strange, like weirdly specific. I'm like, Okay,
that's not the first question I would have thought of,
but sure, sure.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, I'm kind of curious. I'm kind of curious if
that was the thing that I just don't know about.
But yes, thank you for oreo agreement. I am with
you on all of this. M It's hard to find
(20:56):
someone who's on the same page. Yeah, yeah, I don't think.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I don't think I gave the last time we were
talking about this, I don't think I gave my opinion.
I like, eat one cookie first, and then I eat
the icing, and then I eat the second cookies. Sometimes
I'll eat the icing with the second cookie, but usually
it's like in those layers and the cookie is my
favorite part. But I'm not mad at the icing because
I'm like, oh, sugar.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Rush, I like this method. Yeah, got a method. Yeah,
I think everyone has a method. I think you're right
or this is a very method heavy cookie.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Speaking of methods, Okay, Michelle wrote, I recently listened to
the Almond Joy Mounds episode and I just had to
write in you were talking about favorite candies and I
didn't hear mine mentioned.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Haha.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I'm not really surprised. There are a lot of candy brands.
When I was a kid, I really loved the root
beer barrels, the hard candy they are so good. I
still enjoy them. Yummy. Those caramels that are called bold
Sometimes they have some kind of like white cream stuff
in the center of a kind of wonky ring of caramel.
Mint meltaways so good, and Andy's Mints. But if I'm
(22:11):
in a candy aisle and have to choose, most times
I'm buying a Three Musketeers bar, and I eat them
so weirdly too. I kind of break them apart from
one end with my fingers and really savor all the bites.
Sometimes I break off a bit of chocolate or some
newgat They're fun. Thanks so much for all the podcasts.
I've been listening to you both for so so long,
and every time I write in and you read my email,
(22:31):
I feel so special. You're amazing. Oh thank you. By
the way, I'm an author and was recently laid off
from my day job. I'm on a journey to be
a full time writer of fantasy and science fiction. If
you feel so inclined to take a gander at my website,
I thank you. If you like what you see, please
share it. I know it's a huge ask, but you
can't get a yes without asking, right and her website
(22:53):
url is Michelle Kits dot com m I C h
E L l e k t Z. So yes, we
would love to share it because heck yes, science fiction
and fantasy writing and heck yes, branching out on your
own a.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Little bit to do it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, yeah, you know, even if you didn't intend to
do so originally, right, we all know how that feels.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes, yes, so thank you for sharing. Also, I adore
how many of these candies I have not heard of?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Oh really, Oh man, I know what all of those are.
I feel like I feel like some. I feel like
some of those are more like Northern candies and Southern
candies in terms of the United States, because I definitely
grew up with all of those. I don't really prefer
hard candy because it always makes my mouth sore and like,
oh why is my candy cutting me? This doesn't enjoy
(23:53):
this relationship. The root your flavored stuff is always a when. Yeah.
Those caramels with the weird chalk it's not chalky, but
the weird like creamy whites. Yes, those are so good.
The bull's eyes, I love those. They make, the long
ones that are called cowtails. Oh oh, I love them.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Mint melt aways were something that my grandparents always had
on hand, always, always, always, always, and I don't think
I ever really enjoyed them, but I would eat them
for the melting, for the melting texture.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
And then yeah Andy Spence classic classic.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I know those and I know Three Musketeers are I
do like that you had a very specific method of
eating it to savor it.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, I would do stuff like that too. My friends
used to make fun of me because I would eat
chocolate chips one at a time.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Uh huh, I just one, just one? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much to both of these
listeners for writing it. M H. If you would like
to write to us, you can our emails hello at
saverpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter,
moving into blue Sky, Facebook and Instagram at saber pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Saver is
a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(25:27):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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