Guava season in The Bahamas announces itself in a scent that somehow manages to be floral and tropical, earthy and as strong as a just-applied perfume.
The fruit grows wild in The Bahamas, and during the season, it can turn up in home kitchens, local bakeries, roadside conversations and the kind of family recipes nobody writes down because somebody’s auntie already knows. It is nostalgic food, but not museum food.
By early August, guava season is hitting its stride, and Bahamians begin turning it into jams, preserves and, most famously, one of the island’s most beloved desserts — guava duff. Pieces of fruit are rolled into a soft dough, steamed and served with a warm butter or rum sauce; the final dish looking like a blonde roll-up filled with bits of deep scarlet fruit. Fresh guava can be eaten simply by scooping it right out of a just-split fruit with a spoon, but this is something that becomes more persuasive once it meets heat, sugar, dough, butter and time.
At Atlantis, it shows up in enough places to make a small scavenger hunt of it. Bahamian-focused restaurant Bimini Road serves guava duff with a guava sauce, while Amber restaurant goes further with a Bahamian steamed guava roll, guava sauce and aerated rum guava. Pirate Republic Taproom in Nassau makes the fruit savory with guava barbecued pork “wyngz.” Cocodrilo pours a guava margarita and Shake Shack at Atlantis serves a strawberry guava mojito.
Elsewhere on Paradise Island, Carnivale works guava into a Red Pisco Sangria, a guava BBQ sauce for its chicken wing platter, and a brunch waffle with guava chantilly cream. At The Ocean Club, guava is often featured as one of the flavors from its poolside gelato cart.
By the time it reaches the glass, the dough or the sauce, guava still carries that first announcement of the season, the one that arrives on the breeze before anyone has taken a bite.
