Medellín Fruit Tour

The fruit tour where you end up cooking inside the market

Small groupsRNT 271715

Every fruit tour in Medellín cuts fruit for you. This is the one where you then buy the ingredients and cook a simple Colombian dish yourself, right inside Plaza Minorista, with a professional in gastronomy or social studies as your guide. Three hours in the city’s working market. We meet at the entrance and go stall by stall: twenty-two fruits cut in front of you, the dishes the market cooks for its own people, and the stories of the families who work here. Then you cook a simple Colombian dish right in the market with produce bought minutes earlier. You leave with a juice of the fruit you liked most and a gift to take home.

Also included

Twenty-two Colombian fruits, each named and cut fresh at the stall.
Tastings of the foods prepared inside the market, chosen by the guide that morning.
A simple dish you prepare yourself with ingredients bought at the stalls.
Local stories told by a gastronomy or social studies professional.
A fresh juice of the fruit you choose, at the market juice bar.
A printed card of the twenty-two fruits and a gift to take home.

This is for you if…

You’d rather taste a city than tour it — markets, street corners, family kitchens.
You want the history behind every bite, told by people who live it.
You prefer small groups that move like a group of friends.

Fruit stalls at Plaza Minorista in Medellín

Check-in map

What you’ll live at Plaza Minorista

Six stops inside Medellín’s market, in the order you walk them.

Plaza Minorista José María Villa, Medellín

Meet at the market entrance
We start at the gate of Plaza Minorista at 10:00, when the stalls are full and the trucks have gone. You get the printed fruit card so you can tick as you taste.
The market and its people
A first loop through the halls with a gastronomy or social studies professional: how this plaza came to be, who works here, and how fruit gets from the Antioquia hills to this floor by dawn.
Twenty-two fruits, cut in front of you
Some you know — mango, guanábana, lulo, granadilla — and some you have never seen, like mangostino, chontaduro or borojó. We name a few here and leave the rest for the day.
What the market cooks for itself
The stalls that feed the vendors: a few savoury and sweet tastings picked by the guide that morning, from what is freshest and best that day.
Cook a simple dish inside the market
You pick the ingredients from the stalls and prepare a simple Colombian dish right there, with produce bought minutes earlier.
A juice and a gift to take home
We end at the market juice bar. You name your favourite of the twenty-two and it becomes your juice — and you leave with a gift from the market.

We love details

What you’ll learn at each stop

A market is a language. By the end you’ll read this one — the fruit, the words, the tools and the people.

1At the entrance
How a plaza de mercado works
- Who sells what, and why the fruit is at the back
- How to ask for a price in Medellín Spanish
- The market words: puesto, libra, ñapa, corriente, de primera
2Walking the halls
The stories behind the stalls
- How this market replaced the old Guayaquil one
- Families on the same stall for thirty years
- The road the fruit takes from the Antioquia hills to the floor by dawn
3At the fruit stalls
How to pick, open and eat
- Ripe or not — by weight, smell, skin and sound
- How to open a granadilla, a mangostino, a pitahaya
- Twenty fruit names in Spanish you’ll take home
4At the food stalls
What Medellín eats for breakfast
- The dishes the vendors eat, and where they sit
- Sweet or savoury: what goes with what
- Which stalls open at four in the morning
5At the cooking table
Colombian kitchen tools and tricks
- The utensils in every Colombian kitchen and what they do
- A simple dish you make yourself, with a recipe card to take home
- How to buy the ingredients at the local price
6At the juice bar
Order like a local
- Water or milk, and why it matters
- Which fruits mix and which never do
- Your gift, and how to bring fruit home safely

What you’ll taste

Some of the fruits you’ll try at Plaza Minorista

A few you know and a few you don’t — more than twenty in total, and we leave the rest for the day.

MangoMedellín’s everyday mango, eaten green with salt and lime as often as ripe.
Guanábana · soursopCreamy white pulp, sweet-tart like strawberry and pineapple with citrus.
Lulo · naranjillaOrange outside, green inside — tangy, kiwi-meets-citrus, the base of jugo de lulo.
Granadilla · sweet granadillaCrack the orange shell and slurp the sweet, floral pulp, seeds and all.
Maracuyá · passion fruitSharp, aromatic pulp behind Colombia’s most beloved juice.
Mangostino · mangosteenThe “queen of fruits”: white, delicate, floral, sweet segments. Seasonal.
Pitahaya · yellow dragon fruitColombia’s yellow variety, far sweeter than the pink one you may know.
Chontaduro · peach palmStarchy palm fruit eaten with salt and honey — like nothing else.
BorojóDense chocolate-brown pulp from the Pacific, famous as an energiser.

Good to know

Questions about this experience

What fruits will I taste?

More than twenty, following the season. Some you will know — mango, guanábana (soursop), lulo, granadilla, maracuyá (passion fruit) — and some you have probably never seen, like mangostino (mangosteen), chontaduro or borojó. We keep the rest for the day; the full list is on the printed card you take home.

Where do we meet?

At the entrance of Plaza Minorista José María Villa, Medellín’s central fruit and vegetable market, at 10:00 AM. The nearest metro station is Prado on line A, a 12-minute walk; Cisneros on line B is 14 minutes. The exact gate is in your confirmation.

Is it only fruit?

No. Besides the twenty-two fruits you taste a few savoury and sweet dishes prepared inside the market, chosen by the guide that morning, and you cook a simple Colombian dish yourself with ingredients bought at the stalls. It ends with a juice and a gift to take home.

Who guides the tour?

A professional in gastronomy or social studies who knows the market and its vendors. The stories are about the plaza, the families who work in it and how food reaches Medellín.

Who is behind this tour?

Eatable Stories, the team that runs the Bogotá Fruit Tour at Paloquemao market — rated 5.0 on Airbnb with more than 50 reviews. Medellín is our second market; the Bogotá page has the reviews.

How much food is included?

The tastings add up to a full meal — come hungry.

How much walking is it?

About 3 hours at an easy pace, with plenty of tasting and story stops along the way.

I have dietary restrictions — is that a problem?

Tell us on WhatsApp after booking and we adapt the stops or menu where possible.

What language does it run in?

This experience runs in Spanish, English — your group’s choice.

Book via WhatsApp