It’s Chinola time in the Dominican Republic

” I may have a chinola addiction”

There is a slogan that says “the Dominican Republic is a wonderland country” and it can be suitable even in the gastronomic field most of all if we are speaking about fruits offer. The Dominican Republic has vegetables and fruits that are perfect accomplices for the elaboration of tasty dishes and drink.

So, one of the great advantages of living in the Dominican Republic is definitely the availability of a large variety of fruits that you can find during all the whole year every single day. Many fruits you can find here are bizarre and they have exotic treats you have probably never seen before. Some of them are good looking, colorful, sweet and unusually-shaped and generally, you can’t find in any European grocery.

One of them is doubtless the “chinola”, also notable as maracuja, passion fruit, parcha or grenadine, in the foreigner countries where has been exported. A funny episode that happened to us was when we would like to order a passion fruit juice but when we asked it, everyone looked us in a strange way…No one could understand what was passion fruit about, so the only way to express me was to show a picture of this fruit and then suddenly all the smiling Dominican people looked at us and screamed: “Ohhhh, Chinola!”! A funny real story just for make you understand that while in the Dominican Republic forget about Maracuya or other names, here you will speak about chinola everywhere you will find yourself.

Anyway, the chinola is a native Latin American fruit and it is also grown in the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic, it is produced in Santo Domingo, Baní, Santiago, La Romana, San Cristóbal, Villa Altagracia and in many other destinations of the green island.

It is a comestible fruit with a very strong aromatic flavor, kind of acid taste mixed with sweet. Generally, it is round to oval in shape, the size of a little ball and it can be found dark purple, pink, yellow or green color (In the DR are commonly yellow or green). Inside the fruit is composed of a pulp of several small dark seeds that have a sweet and sour taste. The crunchy delicious seeds are perfect for squeezing to make fresh juice, jams or sweets.

In the Dominican Republic, you must try the experience to go in some street vendors and buy at ridiculously low prices some chinola and just taste the delicious orange pulp with a little spoon everywhere you want. I use to eat two or free at a time and whenever I have the desire it’s available on the street all around Dominican Republic!

I personally love eating chinola but most of all drinking chinola juice. I discovered it the first time I came to the Dominican Republic and I totally felt in love with it! Orange, delightful, healthy, refreshing and perfect during the summer days in the hot tropical weather… It’s one of the Getaway’s top favorite juice because it immediately remembers us the life in the Dominican Republic.

Chinola it is a very healthy fruit because of the high concentration of vitamin A and C that stimulates the regeneration of new cells and increases resistance against infections so it has an antioxidant benefit. Furthermore, the fruit is rich in minerals and it provides potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium which have a lot of benefits on our body functions especially during sunny seasons!

When you are in the Dominican Republic for sure you can taste chinola in different ways: at the breakfast buffet with other tropical fruits or a large variety of sweet dessert made with the sugary fruit flavored and why not after dinner with some cocktail blend of rum and fresh passion fruit? I think I can’t compare the chinola taste with any other fruits I have ever tasted before, but trust me you will not regret when you will get know it!

For breakfast? Chinola. Mid-morning snack? Chinola sweet. Afternoon delight? Chinola juice! This fruit is versatile as it is delicious and so how you can resist?

Then, come to the Dominican Republic and while you are enjoying your vacation don’t forget to take a Bite of Chinola and have a sip of a chinola fresh juice and you will just get the real taste of the Caribbean soul!