Bare Necessities

Prickly Pear Fruit

Why did Baloo, the bear from Disney’s original Jungle Book, love prickly pears so much that he included them in a song about “the simple bare necessities of life?” Because the prickly pear cactus’ fragrant fruit is among nature’s most succulent sweet treats. If it weren’t for the spines making them painfully difficult to harvest and prepare, these marvelous magenta fruits might be eaten to extinction. The fruit of the prickly pear cactus tastes nothing like the plant that bears them. Those paddles that look like the tails of demonic green beavers, also known as nopales, are vegetables that taste like a cross between INW Cactus and green beans, with hints of okra and bell pepper. The prickly pear fruit, however, taste more than anything like some kind of all-natural watermelon bubblegum, and they combine sweet juiciness with just enough of a sharp tangy bite like that of a not-quite-ripe strawberry to make them mouthwatering and keep you wanting more.

CAP Sweet Guava alone tastes halfway like prickly pear, nearly as much as it does an actual guava, because it has that same bubblegummyness of a prickly pear. It also has a bit of tartness that’s not like citrus fruit, but more like a barely-ripe berry or slightly sour grape, just like the prickly pear. It forms the thick, syrupy base of this recipe. The FA Watermelon blends with that base to evoke the unique flavor of the prickly pear and is the only watermelon flavor authentic enough to mix with Sweet Guava and not be a one-way ticket to Candyland. But for all its unmatched natural flavor, FA Watermelon falls short in a big way. It’s terribly dry, very nearly watermelon jerky. No problem, thanks to FA Pear. The prickly pear, despite it’s name, doesn’t taste at all like a pear, but the actual pear flavor of FA Pear is overwhelmed by the much heavier guava and the higher concentration of FA Watermelon, so all that’s left is extra juicy goodness to rehydrate the recipe.