Prickly What?

Prickly pear is one of the world’s best kept delicious secrets. While grown the world-over for food and other uses, it is believed that the “opuntia ficus indica” originated in Mexico. The fruits of the opuntia (“tuna” in Spanish, also known as prickly pear, fico d’india, Indian fig, Barbary fig, Nochtli (Aztec) and others) range in color from green, yellow, orange, red and deep magenta. 

The opuntia cactus grows wild throughout much of United States, but is particularly abundant in the Southwest states. While grown domestically for home-use or adding color to a garden, these beautiful plants can be found dotting the open landscape everywhere throughout the Southwest.

Here at Alientown Cactus and Chile Company, we use wild-harvested prickly pears found primarily in the southeastern portion of New Mexico. We predominantly use the fruit of the “opuntia orbiculata” cactus plant, which is known for its large, orbicular pads and large fruit with amazing deep-maroon flesh. There are no words to describe how beautiful the juice of this fruit is, and harvest and processing time is our favorite part of the year. 

Mix our syrup into a clear soda (your favorite lemon-lime flavored drink), or a margarita, lemonade or tea and you’ll marvel at the lovely almost neon pink/maroon that it becomes. Pour the syrup on vanilla ice cream and you’ll be amazed at what is before you. 

And the taste is just … devine. While it maintains its own characteristics, some have compared it to the taste of a sweet watermelon. We here at Alientown think it tastes somewhat like a cross between watermelon and a honeydew, with earthy tones. You’ll have to just try it and let us know what you think.