Every Tuesday at my language school, a restaurant caters chips and guacamol for all the students. My first week, I made the understandable mistake of calling it “guacamole”, and my teacher quickly corrected me, telling me that in Guatemala they had “guacamol”, which is different from Mexican “guacamole”. While there are differences, they taste very similar, and everyone’s insistence on the correct terminology is a bit funny to me.
Guacamol is made with an avocado base, just like guacamole. They then add a little bit of onion and oregano, and a lot of lime/lemon (the word for both is the same) juice, finishing it with a bit of salt and pepper. It is simpler than Mexican guacamole, and tastes lighter and fresher. The predominant flavors are the avocado and lime/lemon, without the heavy flavors that usually go in guacamole.
To be honest, my first impression of guacamol was that it was just a weak guacamole, but now that I understand the pride that Guatemalans have over having their own unique food. Once I stopped trying to compare it to Mexican guacamole that I’ve had, I began to appreciate guacamol for its own merits, and it’s definitely something that I could make very easily at home.