When visiting the Virgin Islands, one of the top things on your list should be to try our local cuisine as well as our island fruits. Virgin Islands fruits are sweet and delicious, and is one of the tastes that I long for the most while away.

The grocery store or farmer’s market version of some of these fruits just aren’t the same as having the real thing from back home. So, if you are in the Virgin Islands on vacation or even if it’s just for a day on a cruise, stop by one of our local farmers and give these fruits a try.

Virgin Islands Fruits You Have to Try

Genep/Kenep/Spanish Lime

Once you get past the green shells, a tasty orange treat awaits your tastebuds. These fruits have so many different names in the islands that it’s hard to keep track. But once you taste a nice sweet Guinep, you won’t care what they call it, you’ll just be asking for more.

Seagrapes

On most beaches, you will find a tree with little green or red/maroon fruit that you aren’t sure whether or not it’s safe to eat. In most cases, they are safe to eat and quite a treat when you are at the beach. Freshly picked from the tree, I remember eating these on weekend trips to the beach. If you happen to come across a tree on your beach stop, be sure to pick some and get a taste.

Gooseberry (some islanders call it cherry)

These small green fruits are mostly used to make Gooseberry/Cherry Stew. Around Carnival season, you will see a lot of vendors at food fair or in the village selling these treats. The fruit itself is almost sour, but the stewed version is absolutely heavenly.

There are a lot of different versions of gooseberry around the world, so make sure that you try the Caribbean Gooseberry that’s green in color and tart in flavor. And don’t forget the stew, you wouldn’t want to miss that flavor.

Grafted Mango

There are your normal yellow mangos and then their are the ones that a much bigger in size and are blended colors like red/yellow or green/red. I grew up just calling them all grafted mangos, but there are so many different versions, I just use the color to tell me which one I want.

These types of mangoes are usually juicier, thicker, and 10x sweeter than your normal mango. Try one and you’ll never go back to a regular mango again.

Coconut – Jelly and Water

Of course on any island, coconut is one of the staple fruits and the one most offered. That’s no different in the Virgin Islands.

Talk about setting myself up for disappointment. Now that I’ve talked about all this great fruit, just makes me long for it even more.

Other Fruits

I could go on and on about other fruits that I love, like tamarind, cashew apples, sugar apples, and guava. Tropical fruits come in some many colors shapes and forms, and they all seem to be super delicious. The perks, I guess, of living on an island.

But, these 5 fruits that I mention above, I want you to try on your next trip to the Virgin Islands. You can’t go wrong with any of these fruits and will be sure to fall in love. Not only with the flavors, but with the backdrop of that laid back island life. You will be packing your bags to live there in no time.

 

Have you tried any of these fruits that I mentioned? Let me know in the comments, how you liked it. Don’t forget to tweet me a picture, so I can get a taste vicariously through you.