You say parcha, I say something else
Venezuelans are BIG on natural fruit juice. There is not one restaurant that I have been to that doesn’t offer an assortment of freshly squeezed juices. I’ve been open to trying all kinds and have discovered fruit that I don’t think should be made into juice (e.g. grapes, tamarind) and those that I love.
This, my friends, is my favorite juice. The fruit it comes from is called parcha here in Venezuela (and I assume most of Latin America). Apparently, it’s in the same family as passion fruit, also known as parchita.
In Haiti parcha is called grenadine. I know in English grenadine refers to a totally different fruit, but that’s what I’ve been calling it since I was a wee young lass; hence the bizarre title of this post 
Yes, those are seeds floating at the top. You can remove them or swallow them whole – it takes some getting used to. They are coated with the fleshy substance of the fruit and they are very much like watermelon seeds, so you don’t want to chew on them.
I can’t really tell you what other fruit that it tastes like because its flavor is unique to me. It has a mild, nutty sweetness and as you can see a thick consistency. It is so viscous that I sometimes drink it as a mid-morning snack. If you’re not into heavy juices, you can always run it through a sieve before drinking it.
All in all, good stuff!
Tags: Culture, Haitian-American in Venezuela, Parcha, Passion Fruit, Venezualan food, Venezuela
So I know that fruit as sugar apple in Barbados; don’t know what it is in Spanish, though. In Spanish, we say parcha (Puerto Rico) or maracuya (Panama) for passion fruit so that wouldn’t be it either. I’ll have to look into this…
I eat it straight out of the skin, but I’m not sure about the juice bit (or swallowing seeds!). As for the juices you’re not too sure about, jugo de tamarindo is delicious and weren’t you used to grape juice in the U.S.?
For some reason I am not a fan of the flavor of tamarind – I don’t think I would even like eating the fruit alone. Grape juice in the US is purple and tastes nothing like actual grapes. The grape juice sold here is simply the squeezed fruit (so it has a brownish color to it) with a little water added; nada mas. While the idea sounds great, very natural, it just doesn’t taste good to me
LOL They have the yellow-ish grape juice here, too. But they add so much sugar, it could be anything! What you describe does sound like something I’d skip… Tamarinds are really good! You don’t have them in Haiti? My dad recently found sweet ones from the Phillipines, but I don’t like those as much as the typical sour ones. They also sell the sour ones rolled in sugar.
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I wish we had fresh juices like that here! The Argentines aren’t big juice people (apart from orange). I have no idea what fruit parcha might be. Here, maracuyá is passion fruit. Very interesting!
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Yeah, I used to call it maracuyá in South Florida. This fruit used to be in abundance in Haiti, but now it’s so rare it’s extremely expensive.