Have you ever had a Limoncillo?

As a child, were you ever prohibited from eating a specific fruit? Might seem like a weird question, but I was! Meet the Limoncillo (also known as Spanish lime, genip, genipe, quenepa, mamoncillo, or honeyberry), the one fruit my parents did not allow me to eat unsupervised. Heck! Even supervised I was not allowed to eat it.

You might be wondering why and as you scroll down, you’ll realize it: the limoncillo has a huge pit that’s covered in sweet flesh. You need to carefully suck on it, not to hard or it’ll choke you and as a parent, it’s the last thing you want to experience. Having your kid choking on a pit the size of their esophagus. Not a good time, so my parents just said no limoncillos until I was old enough.

Well, I was old enough sometime during my tween years and when August rolled around, limoncillos were everywhere! The school I attended also had a limoncillo tree, making it a fun fruit to eat when the school year started.

To eat them, make sure to previously wash the fruit and break open with your front teeth. Remove the top skin and you’ll reveal the fleshy pit. You can either suck on the fruit, holding the fruit in your hand or remove the pit and suck it inside your mouth CAREFULLY. Don’t bite into it, because it’s a hard pit. Remove and repeat.

I’ve now consumed about 10 limoncillos trying to get a definite flavor to describe to you. It’s sweet, but it’s starchy in a way. Like a green banana? Be careful, it does stain clothes if it gets on it. It’s…incredibly hard to describe. It’s fun to eat though! Normally eaten fresh, it’s available in Latin American markets in the US during the season. I haven’t seen many, if any, preparations with this. Have you?

The dangerous pit!

Interested in more Caribbean fruits? Check out my posts on Avocados, Guavas, Passion Fruit, and Mangoes! Have you ever tried Limoncillo? How would you describe the taste?

Remember to enter my Vanilla Giveaway which ends tonight (Sunday 28th) at 11pm! Good Luck!