Colombian fruit … the greatest part of Colombia? Some might say so. Today’s adventure brought us to a huge market just north of where we live called Plaza Minorista José María Villa (Medellin). We wanted to try as many new and interesting Colombian fruits as we could, especially those you can’t find in the United States. Read more to hear about our adventure or skip to the bottom to see what we bought!
Before heading to the market, we stopped for lunch at Uno Mas Uno in Laureles since we loved it so much the first time. Sam opted for the pollo, and I the pork. He chose the “Jugo de mora” and I got some sort of mint iced tea sweetened with panela.
Heading to the market to get some Colombian fruit
From Uno Mas Uno we took a taxi to the market which ended up costing us 12,000 COP. I would highly recommend you do this if you choose to come to this market. We read in a few other blogs and reviews on google that the area around the market is a bit “sketchy” and we can confirm this is still true. There are many people loitering around the outskirts, many unhoused people, and others who probably were on drugs. We felt completely safe pulling up to the entrance of the market in the taxi, though, and had no trouble once we entered the market to get some Colombian fruit.
The Colombian Fruit Market
It’s basically a covered warehouse with numerous stands placed all around. The vendors were very friendly (for the most part) and we had no problems trying different Colombian fruits before we bought them. As long as we ended up buying something, the vendor didn’t charge us for the fruit we tried! This is a pretty nice perk when you have no idea what you’re buying. Just be comfy with eating the fruit without washing!!
Learning about the Colombian Fruit Market
After walking around a while and surveying the offerings, one of the vendors explained to us that this is both a public market and a wholesale market. It opens at 3AM for the local businesses to come and buy produce (fruits, veg and meat) from the farmers that come from all over the country to sell at wholesale prices. Later in the morning, the market opens to the public. We always wondered where the people in the little bodegas get their fruits and veg from. Now we know.
The man also told us that every Wednesday, they bring a lot of the unsold produce outside to one of the parking lots and give the food away to those who need it, sort of like a food pantry. Pretty neat and a wholesome way to lessen food waste 🙂
We were there at around 3:30pm, which was pretty late so there weren’t as many people. The vendors told us that the place is chaos in the mornings. It did look like a lot of the stands were closed so maybe that was another reason why there were less people.
Trying the fruit
My #1 Colombian fruit I was hunting for was a Guanabana (soursop). It is a strange fruit that has a really unique taste and texture. I first tried it when we visited Colombia back in 2021, and I was on a mission to find a good one and bring it home. The problem is, Guanabanas are HUGE. Like maybe minimum 6 pounds a pop. We passed by many at different stores and supermarkets, but they were always too freaking big to carry home. And so, I was determined to get one on our Colombian fruit hunt.
The first vendor we tried to buy one from had one that was probably 8 pounds. I told him that it was too heavy and tried to see if we could come back and get it on our way out, but he said his stand was closing at 4pm. Later we found one at a different stand that was a little bit lighter — maybe 4 pounds? I was happy with my pick and we kept moving along.
There’s a basement?!
Eventually we realized that there was a basement floor to the market that apparently sold “more expensive” selections of fruit. We made our way down and hit the jackpot. The vendors on the basement floor were SUPER lively, and way more of the stands were open.
In the basement, we found what ended up being our favorite fruit from the haul, the cherimoya, from a vendor who only sold cherimoyas and huge avocados the size of my head. It was crazy!
Looking for meat…
We also went the the back of the basement where all the butcher shops are. There were maybe 30 stands of butchers with glass encasements holding the various cuts of meat. I wanted to get some chicken breast so we went to the chicken guy.
While we were waiting in line this one kid came up to Sam and asked if he was American. He said yeah and the kid started trying to talk to him in English asking if Sam would give him classes. Sam respectfully declined, but the funniest part was that the kid thought I was Colombian! This wasn’t the first time someone thought I was a paisa, but it was funny in this moment because he tried to speak super broken English to Sam while asking me questions in Spanish. Hehehe. I ended up leaving the convo to buy the chicken from the chicken guy. I got 10 chicken breast fillets for 22,000 COP ($5.62 USD).
Overall, it was a great experience, we came away with around 10 different varieties of fruits (listed below) and it was a cool experience to see a local market where everyone gets their produce. Since we paid in cash for everything, I wasn’t able to keep track of exactly how much we spent but for all the fruit we got it was less than 45,000 COP ($11.50 USD). There is another famous fruit market in Medellín and we hope to try that one out sometime soon!
The Fruits we bought At the Market
Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of every fruit but I tried my best to find pics of most of them!
Anonna (Cherimoya): Super sweet, custard like texture. It is green on the outside with white flesh and black seeds when you cut into the middle of it. This probably was our favorite. We bought one small cherimoya for 8,000 COP ($2.04 USD). It was pretty expensive in our opinion but now that we tried it I definitely would’ve bought more.
Guanabana (Soursop): Huge green fruit with spikes. Similar to Cherimoya that is is green on the outiside and soft and white pulp on the inside. The flesh is a really interesting texture and it has a bit of a sweet/sour taste like a mix between a banana and a pineapple? We bought a 4ish pound guanabana for 10,000 COP ($2.55 USD).
Guyaba (Guava): Very mild taste shaped like a pear with a beautiful bright pink color on the inside. If you’ve ever had guava juice, the actual fruit has the similar taste but much less sweet and more mild. It is soft and you can eat the skin!
Lulo: Kind of like a cross between an orange and a lime, the Lulo is super sour and acidic. It has orange skin with green/yellow flesh. Many people eat it raw or use Lulo for juices and cooking.
Maracuya (Passion Fruit): Yellow or green outside and yellow pulp on the inside. Super acidic with notes of sweet. Super tasty! You can find this everywhere, and people use maracuya for all types of cooking.
Curubo: Cousin to the maracuya, also known as the banana passion fruit. It looks like a mini banana and is ready to eat when soft. You cut it in half and there is an orange pulp with seeds similar to the maracuya. I found this super sour and did not enjoy it but Sam really loved it! We bought four of these for 1,000 COP ($0.25 USD)
Gulupa: This to me is what I think a passionfruit is like when I think of it. It is purple/red on the outside with yellow pulp and black seeds on the inside. This was by far the sweetest passionfruit type we ate, and I really liked it. We bought half a kilo for 5,000 COP ($1.27 USD).
Carambollo (Starfruit): Yellow outside and inside with the shape of the star, you can eat the carambollo raw or use it in cooking! It was a complex taste that is mostly tart with hints of sweetness. I would say this fruit was more on the bottom of our list, but it was cool to try!
Mango: Need I say more? There are types of mangoes in Colombia (similar to the Philippines) where you can just eat the entire skin and flesh! It gets a bit messy, but these small mangoes were super super sweet and tasty. You can never go wrong with mangoes.
Mangostino (Mangosteen): It’s a strange fruit grown in tropical places like Colombia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. It is small and purple on the outside with white flesh on the inside. The taste is like a cross between a kiwi, lychee and banana. Personally, this is one of my favorite fruits that are hard to find in the U.S. We bought 4 mangostinos for 5,000 COP ($1.27 USD)
Mandarina (Mandarin): Self explanatory. These are a little bit bigger than your average cuties found in the U.S. but they are essentially the same. Think of a really sweet cutie and make it about 20% bigger and you got a mandarina. A safe and reliable bet!
Thanks for reading!
