Our cat-sitters are South African, and when they came over for dinner a while back we three agreed that guava juice was our favourite fruit juice. My husband (who is Swedish) had never seen or heard of guava before. We hunted all over for guavas for a while – fresh or tinned – but no luck. There was no sign of them – even in in immigrant-rich areas, where the shops carry much more exotic fruit.
The South African guava industry is primarily based on a local cultivar called Fan Retief, named after the founder of this industry. This variety has a vivid salmon pink flesh, and derives from the original guavas, brought to the Cape via Madeira, by the early Dutch settlers in the seventeenth century. The pink-fleshed Fan Retief variety accounts for 90% of commercial plantings. The particular salmon pink shade of the Fan Retief guava variety is highly prized by international juice producers. (source)
In Tenerife we had peach and guava sauce on an excursion one day, but could not find guava in any of the shops near us.
Ironically, when I got back to Sweden, I spotted this face mask on the shelf of a local pharmacy. I bought it because I figured it was the closest I would get to a guava.
It is actually really good – reasonably priced and smells nice. The texture it is that of an oil-gel that does not dry and is very easy to rinse off.
And the packaging was covered with gorgeous juicy guavas!
