Tips on the best fruits to eat in Jamaica

The fruits in Jamaica are exotic, exquisite, exciting, and sugary sweet. You cannot have an island experience and not taste of these fruits, they are apart of the many pleasures of the island. Many fruits are available on the island of Jamaica, in many different varieties of flavor, texture and shapes so kick back and wrap your lips around a fruit of your desire and let the sweet taste takes you into the realm of an orgasmic experience; they are that good.

My top picks

Mangoes: they are the number one pick all year long; they come in many different varieties in which to choose from. Every different species of mango are known to be sweet, juicy, and delicious and they all have a distinctive taste, texture and aroma.

I will list a few favorite in the order of my personal preferences, and they are the East Indian, Julie, Bombay, Number 11, Blackie, and Common mangoes.

To fully enjoy and have a proper mango experience you need to visit Jamaican between the months of May----August, because there will be an overabundance of fully ripe, delicious mangoes available for your pleasure. Jamaican’s have a passion for mangoes so much so that they have written a song about this fruit, it is an old folk song called “mango time” and it is written and sang in the native tongue of Patois/Patwa.

Other enjoyable fruits that are unique in their own rights are the fruits listed below.

Apples: of the apples variety I enjoy Pineapple, Star apple, Ethiopia apple, Sweet sap (Anon, sugar apple), and Chinese apple (also known as Pomegranate)

Plumbs: June (Jewish) plum, Hog plum, and collie plum

Sweet sugar cane, Jelly water coconut, cherries, guniep, and naseberry

Best place --- Best price

The best place to get the best prices on food products is from the market, the most famous and largest market is located in Downtown Kingston, and it’s called Coronation market. This market is where you can get every kind of produce from all over the island, and you can get your fruits and vegetables at the most competitive price than at regular supermarket or from local street side vendors. This market is outdoors for the most part with numerous amounts of stalls set up with various produce; these vendors are tenacious sales people.

I have many memories of my grandmother and I making our weekly trips to the market for food, the trip was always adventurous. To navigate successfully through coronation market it is very important that you have an understanding of the native tongue, and familiarize yourself with the value of the Jamaican currency, so you can work it out in Jamaican dollars to US dollars to make sure you are getting a good deal and not being ripped off.

Be aware that Jamaican are always after the US dollars, so when ever you purchase something using US dollar you will always receive your change in Jamaican dollars. It is best that you always have a certain amount of money in the Jamaican currency to shop with, so you do not get confused by the conversion of the dollars or be taken advantage of by the locals.

Tip: I would recommend upon arrival at the Jamaican Airport you exchange a certain amount of your US currency into Jamaican currency at the exchange booth, located near the Duty Free shop, just beyond the security check-in.

Upon departure you can also exchange your left over Jamaican currency back into US currency.

Our native tongue is called Patois/tPatwa, and it’s the language of the market place, so if you are not well versed in the knowledge and understanding of the language I would suggest that you do not go by yourself because you will not get the deals that a native would. Coronation market is a rough spot to be, the atmosphere is chaotic, its jam pack with people and the pace is vey fast, most of the vendors there are very aggressive because they are competing with other vendors in close proximity so they push their product creatively with prices or incentives, there is a lot of hustling and haggling that takes place there when trying to sell and buy; both from the vendor as well as the consumer. Tourist is easily spotted and targeted, so be aware that the prices you are quoted on a particular product will be a bit higher than for locals, so if you are a good negotiator and can haggle with them on their own turf you will most likely succeed in getting a big discount with often times some bonus or incentive thrown in as a courtesy, gesture of thanks and gratitude.

Jamaican Currency

The dollar fluctuates often, according to the Forex Rates, Exchange rates currency as of December 24, 2010, the value of the Jamaican dollars was $84.75 to 1 US dollar, so $1 (US) would be worth $84.75 (JA).

US $5 =$423.75 Jamaican, $10 = $847.50, $50 = $4,237.50, $100 = $8,475.00, $500 = $42,375.00, and $1000 == $84,750.00

Sweet & Delicious Fruits

I am a native of Jamaica and I have been craving some of my favorite fruits from the island, nothing can compare to my Jamaican fruits because they are so sweet, juicy, and delicious, I just can’t get enough of them, and I would make the trip to the island just for the food and the fruits.

Memories

I remember as a child we would wake up and go outside and pick fruits right off the tree because most yards had some type of fruit tree in it, the most common fruit tree to have is a mango tree. There were several mango trees in our yard and every morning was a mad dash marathon to get the first dibbs on the mangoes, we would wake up early in the mornings and run outside trying to be first in order to gather up as many mangoes as possible. I would take my bags with me to fill with mangoes, and then I would go sit down somewhere comfortable and enjoy these delicious mangoes one after the other, most times that was my food for the day because they are very filling as well as sweet, and you can’t put them down and walk away. The aroma of mangoes will fill the place and you can smell them a mile away, with mangoes around you have no need of an air fresher, I love the way mangoes smell and the feelings they evoke in me.

Along with having a mango tree we had a naseberry tree right next door to our house, where we were able to get them freely as they drop off the tree when fully ripe. As children we were impatient to wait on the timing of the tree to surrender their fruits to us, so we would hasten the process and take them by force, be it ripe or unripe. We would climb the tree and fill our bags with as many naseberry that we could get, to our heart’s content and then we would wrap them up into newspaper and put under the bed. As the naseberries ripen we would have them available to us right there, where no one else could get a hold of them.

I love me some naseberry, they are very sweet, succulent, and delicious; every part of the fruit can be eaten except the seed inside, which is a medium to large black seed. Naseberry has a brown skin, the meat inside is also brown, soft and fleshy, and they can have a staining texture if not ripen well. As I am writing about these fruits I am yearning for them badly, and it make me want to get on the next flight out to Jamaica.