It’s Mango Season in The Cayman Islands – June 1 to July 31. The love for this fruit is so great here I am inclined to call it the Season of Mango Mania!
Currently, Rick and I find ourselves in a state of being perpetual recipients of Mangos from well-meaning friends (or friends with relatives) who share their property with one or more proliferating Mango trees.
Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy a good Mango … occasionally … just not as a steady diet for 2 months and I can only make so many Mango Tarts (see The Expatriate Baker’s Mango Tart Recipe.) Thus we find ourselves guilty of perpetually regifting our bounty of gifted Mangos.
What is a Mango
A Mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree Mangifera indica. Worldwide, there are several hundred mango cultivars (a kind of cultivated plant that has been selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated.) Mango fruit varies in size, shape, sweetness, skin color, as well as flesh color (pale yellow, gold, green, or orange) and texture (smooth to fibrous).
My local grocery store recently added a poster adjacent to their offering of Mangos displaying the more prominent cultivars available on our Islands.
I think they did so in self-defense; several weeks prior, I had purchased several different types to use in the tart I was creating without knowing much of anything about what to expect. One of the cultivars was so fibrous I had to discard it! When I subsequently returned to the store, I asked an employee about the Mangos explaining my experience. He clearly did not know much more about the Mangos than I. Next visit, the sign appeared.
Mango History in The Cayman Islands
Mangos aren’t native to the Cayman Islands, and it was only in recent decades that Cayman began to cultivate varieties of the fruit. Wild Mangos are thought to have originated in the Himalaya mountains with the first known cultivation of the fruit around 4,000 years ago in India.
Fifty years ago, it was not easy to find a local Mango for sale in Cayman. However, by 2013, a Department of Agriculture list showed photos of 75 Mangos growing in the Cayman Islands. Now there are believed to be over 100 different types growing on these Islands offering a wide variation in taste, texture, size and color.
Mango Delights
Particularly during Mango Season, one can find a number of creative delights in our restaurants highlighting the Islands’ Mangos. I discovered one of my favorites at The Grand Cayman Marriott Resort’s restaurant, Veranda:
CAYMAN LOBSTER MANGO SALAD
Mixed greens, mango cubes, red onion slivers, scotch bonnet, tomato, green onion, house dressing
Of course, I was inspired to create my own Mango Delight, a fresh Mango Tart.
Want to try it? Check out my recipe for a Cayman Mango Tart.
Conclusion
We will be off to the Mango Fest 2025 on Saturday, 5 July, where the Cayman Islands National Museum in George Town will celebrate the fruit with the ‘Mangofest‘ event. This annual celebration of the fruit is a great opportunity to sample different types and figure out what one’s variety of Mango is. Admission to Mangofest is free. If you are unable to attend, check back here at The Expatriate Baker for photos of my experiences.
References:
Cayman Islands National Museum | Mango Fest 2025
