About red guava

SNAPSHOT

About: Guava is sweet with a refreshing fragrance. It’s so sweet that red guava is often the fruit of choice for Latino pastries.
Taste: Extremely sweet and floral.
The entire fruit – yellowish green peel, pink flesh, and numerous seeds – is edible. And often enjoyed as a snack, like an apple. The red colored meat is the sweetest. The outer layer and peel tend to be sour. The peel is rich in phytochemicals.
Ripening: The fruit lightens in color as it ripens, and its aroma becomes more intense. Ripen at room temperature.
Brooks Availability: Sporadic year-round, peak June thru September
Brooks grows them in Southern Florida
Guava’s seeds are edible:  But you can also discard the seeds either with a spoon or strainer. Or make the seeds a non-issue and toss the fruit into the blender. Seeds, toss or eat? Tips to decide…

In the know

Enjoying red guava

Having guava in the house not only means that some great beverage, snack or dish await, but you’re also treated to an exotic tropical aroma that means that red guava’s not going to last for long. You’ll be enticed to rev up the blender as you walk in your front door. But don’t stop there.

Treat the urge as an invite to add red guava to a dish for the evening’s dinner. Possibilities abound. You can:

  • Slice guava to toss with fruit or lettuce. Or whip up a dressing for a sublime taste throughout the greens.
  • Bring on the heat with a sweet sauce for topping an entree or veggie.
  • Add to bread, in the batter or as a spread.
  • Make a standout dessert (Latinos love guava desserts for a reason).
    Treat the chef to a pre-meal smoothie. Don’t be surprised if your family demands equal fruit.

More ways to enjoy….

Nutritional Punch

Guava’s tropical flavor may seem indulgent, it’s hard core nutrition that’s packed into every guava.

Seeds? Eat or toss

Buried within the guava are lots of tiny edible seeds. Do you eat them or toss them? Build your own “strategy” with these tips and hints…

Cutting up guava

Guava’s not a big fruit, so know how to cut it open to make the most of this sweet fruit..

Guava made for smoothies

Naturally sweet, red guava is made for smoothies. Latinos call them batidos.

Call them what you’d like, but once you try red guava in a smoothie, the drink won’t be the same without the fruit.

But don’t stop with a creamy drink, try red guava in sparkling drinks making a perfect chiller for fall days that haven’t yet turned crisp.

Grown in Southern Florida

We grow red guava in sunny Southern Florida. Red guava loves the heat and the humidity that the area’s tropical climate affords.

Always great to see flowers on a guava tree. It means a fruit is not long in coming.

Guava groves

Because the fruit’s color blends in with the guava tree’s leaves, you might not notice a future harvest in your midst. That is unless the farmer bags it.

Guava bruises easily as it rubs against its own leaves and other fruit with the wind. Some farmers choose to enclose each fruit with a paper bag for appearance’s sake in the produce aisle.

We hope you won’t mind the little imperfections on the outside when the insides look and taste so good.

Recipes

If your only experience with guava is with mass-produced jelly, erase that overly processed amber gel from your mind.

They got the jelly all wrong. Red guava naturally has pectin in it. A simple stove-top boiling of fruit with some herbs and spices will get that amber gel tossed out.

Cooking the fruit for more in-depth flavor is option one, but there are lots of different options that don’t require any heat.

Add naturally sweet and nutritious red guava sliced or blended to salads, veggies and meats that could use some pizzazz.

It makes a fantastic dip for a shrimp cocktail. I attribute guava’s affinity to seafood to its growing in Florida so near the sea.

Think of red guava as a dessert that can be legitimately (read nutritiously) added to any part of the meal or enjoyed as a stand-alone snack.

Made for dessert

Red guava is the fruit of choice for many Latino desserts, it’s that sweet! Nutritious too, but don’t tell the kids.

Guava’s versatility means dessert can have a guava touch in many ways.  Toss fresh guava into the blender for a dessert topping that’s both tasty and beautiful.

Or heat the guava up before it hits the blender. This recipe is a true Caribbean favorite with a touch of brown sugar in it.

But don’t stop with the top. Add blended red guava to a batter, making it moist and giving this coffee cake a hint of the tropics.

Or chop up guava and add it to the mix for some great tasting tropical flavor to a cake, like this mug cake…

guava on the side

Red guava adds a perfect touch to salads and veggies. The fruit’s refreshing taste compliments mushrooms’ deep earthy flavor perfectly.

Of course red guava makes a perfect salad all on its own. A light tropically sweet flavor accented with some herbs and a light dressing is a perfect addition to lunch or dinner.

For our retailers and wholesalers

Ethylene Production: Low
Ethylene Sensitivity: Medium
Shelf Life: Once ripe, use fruit within two days. Don’t refrigerate before it is ripe.
Brooks Availability: Sporadic year-round, peak June thru September
Brooks Origin: Florida
Storage Temperature: 52°F
Storage Humidity: 90%

Sweet fruit that des and drinks

  • Cut one open, make the luscious color inside part of the display.
  • Let guava’s aroma do some enticing on its own. If your produce section is near the coffee bar, give guava some space.
  • Large displays are not necessary to build interest.
  • Sure a guava display in tropicals, but let the guava tree branch out into snackables (apples, pears, peaches) and dessert fruit displays.

Info about red guava

Show what the consumer needs to know (in priority order)

  1. Show one cut in half showing the beautiful pink inside.
  2. It’s a sweet fruit with an alluring tropical aroma.
  3. Brooks’ red guava are grown in Southern Florida. Show the “Fresh from Florida” logo whenever possible.
  4. Guava’s seeds are edible, but you can also discard either with a spoon or strainer. Or make the seeds a non-issue and toss the fruit into the blender.
  5. Red guava is a good source of
    • Vitamin C, with one fruit delivering more than double daily recommended allowance (RDA) for this nutrient.
    • For potassium, guavas beat out bananas with a whopping 220 mg per fruit.
    • Red guava get their red hue from lycopene, an incredibly valuable antioxidant.
    • More about red guava nutrition,

 

Download this info sheet

Sizes: small, medium, large and jumbo

GTIN: 00081679011955

PLU: 4299

Case counts: approx. 17

Net box weight: 10#

Pallet count: 100