75 Guacamole Trivia Questions with Answers
75 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
This guacamole trivia hub explores the dish's avocado-based ingredients, Mexican culinary roots, peppers, terminology, history, and food science. Questions cover tomatillos, jalapeños and their Scoville heat rating, informal abbreviations, early written descriptions, and the marketing history behind the word avocado. The set also includes a surprising detail from the avocado industry: seedless avocados have their own nickname.
The questions balance kitchen knowledge with historical and botanical clues, including a 1697 book associated with a guacamole-like recipe description and a container-related tip for limiting browning. This makes the hub useful for cooking-themed game nights, food-and-culture classroom activities, pub quizzes, and anyone who enjoys ingredient trivia. It rewards both practical familiarity with guacamole and curiosity about how the dish traveled through language, commerce, and history.
A tomatillo, sometimes used in green guacamole variations, is also called what kind of tomato?
Answer
Mexican husk tomato
What heat scale is used to rate jalapeños, a pepper often used in guacamole?
Answer
Scoville heat units
What 1697 book included William Dampier's guacamole-like recipe description?
Answer
A New Voyage Round the World
What trade group popularized the term "avocado" in 1915?
Answer
California Avocado Association
What type of container does Wikipedia name as a way to limit guacamole browning?
Answer
Air-tight container
Which language is the name "guacamole" derived from?
Answer
Classical Nahuatl
What rock are traditional molcajetes carved from?
Answer
Basalt
In which California city was the Hass avocado first grown?
Answer
La Habra Heights
Who bred and named the Hass avocado?
Answer
Rudolph Hass
Who scientifically named Persea americana in 1768?
Answer
Philip Miller
What genus contains the avocado tree?
Answer
Persea
What plant family does the avocado tree belong to?
Answer
Lauraceae
The name jalapeño means 'from' which Mexican city?
Answer
Xalapa
What species is the jalapeño pepper used in many guacamole recipes?
Answer
Capsicum annuum
Prepared guacamole may be sold in what shelf-life-extending packaging method?
Answer
High pressure packaging
What gas is used in supermarkets to hasten avocado ripening?
Answer
Ethylene
Commercial avocado sauce is typically prepared to have what consistency?
Answer
Thin and pourable
What does 'guacamole falso' mean in English?
Answer
Fake guacamole
Which Venezuelan sauce similar to guacamole is made with vinegar?
Answer
Guasacaca
Mantequilla de pobre mixes avocado, tomato, oil, and what kind of juice?
Answer
Citrus juice
Which similar avocado dish means 'poor man's butter' in Spanish?
Answer
Mantequilla de pobre
Besides a dip and spread, guacamole is described as what type of dish ingredient?
Answer
Salad ingredient
Which phytosterol is specifically named as present in avocados used for guacamole?
Answer
Beta-sitosterol
Where were avocado seeds first found around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago?
Answer
Tehuacan Valley
Which English privateer wrote the first known description of a guacamole-like recipe?
Answer
William Dampier
Guacamole is part of which modern national cuisine?
Answer
Mexican cuisine
What toxic compound is found in avocado leaves?
Answer
Persin
In what year was the Hass avocado patented?
Answer
1935
How tall can an avocado tree grow?
Answer
20 meters
What region is the avocado native to?
Answer
Mesoamerica
Guacamole trivia — quick answers
What are good guacamole trivia questions?
Good questions cover avocados, traditional and modern ingredients, Mexican food history, chile peppers, tomatillos, browning, culinary terminology, and the commercial history of the word avocado.
How hard is guacamole trivia?
The difficulty ranges from easy to moderately challenging. Most players know avocados and jalapeños, while harder questions involve historical books, trade groups, pepper terminology, seedless avocados, and food-preservation details.
What is guacamole made from?
Guacamole is primarily made from mashed or chopped avocado. Common additions include lime juice, salt, onion, cilantro, tomato, and chile peppers, although recipes vary by region, household, and culinary tradition.
What is a tomatillo?
A tomatillo is a small green fruit enclosed in a papery husk and widely used in Mexican cooking. Despite its name and appearance, it is not simply a green tomato; it belongs to a distinct plant species in the nightshade family.
How can you slow guacamole from browning?
Limiting guacamole's exposure to air helps slow oxidation and browning. Pressing a cover or food-safe wrap directly against the surface and storing it in a sealed container are commonly used approaches.
What scale measures jalapeño heat?
Jalapeño heat is measured using the Scoville scale, which expresses the amount of capsaicin-related heat in chile peppers. Pepper heat can vary, so individual jalapeños may not all taste equally hot.