the.com/feijoa
the fruit smuggled from Brazil that conquered New Zealand and quietly snubbed the world
means A small, egg-shaped green fruit with sweet, fragrant, slightly gritty flesh tasting of guava, pineapple, and mint, borne on a South American shrub now beloved in New Zealand.
from Named in the 1850s after João da Silva Feijó, a Portuguese-Brazilian naturalist, when German botanist Otto Berg christened the genus Feijoa in his honor. (Botanists have since folded it into the genus Acca, but the old name clings on as the everyday word.) Its native home is the highlands of southern Brazil and neighboring countries — hence the smuggled-from-Brazil flavor of its reputation.
- native home
- Highlands of southern Brazil and Uruguay
- flavor riot
- Tastes like pineapple, guava, and mint colliding
- shelf life
- Rots fast, so barely exported anywhere
- edible flower
- Petals are sweet and entirely snackable
- kiwi obsession
- New Zealanders grow them in backyards everywhere
feijoa sellowiana — native to southern brazil and paraguay, the original wild species of feijoa fruit
new zealand feijoa exports — new zealand produces 90% of global feijoa exports, growing since the 1980s