Jocote

Also called hog plum or ciriguela, jocote comes from the Spondias purpurea tree that belongs to the cashew family that’s native to the tropical regions of the Americas such as Brazil. In warm tropical areas, jocote fruit grows on deciduous trees. Before the tree's first set of leaves emerges, they start to grow after the small red blooms. Some species of the jocote ripen to a yellow tint, although most of the fruit is green or yellowish-green while they are young. The thin skin is edible and has a waxy look. When delicious and ripe, the pulp is yellow.

The fruit has a big, inedible pit or stone in the core. A plum's sweet and slightly acidic aftertaste is considered to characterize the flavor of jocote fruit. In Ecuador, jocote is eaten raw because of its sweet and citrusy flavor, which is refreshing, especially during the summer. It is rarely used for other dishes because you can only harvest a small amount of flesh from every fruit and the seed inside is also not edible.