What fruit has been disappointing?

JUJUBE FOR SALE IN MELBOURNE says...
Hi Diana,

Beach cherry to me is very bland, not sweet, not sour just boring. the same as rollinia.

BTW,Rose myrtle is another name of ceylon hill gooseberry. I have never tasted them before.

JUJUBE FOR SALE IN MELBOURNE says...
Hi Diana,

Oops,I did not know that rose myrtle is a common name of a couple of species in the same family. Thanks for clarifying.

Phil@Tyalgum says...
I bought some santol fruit a while back and it was so sour/poor in flavour I couldn't eat them. Different to the descriptions I had read, I wonder if there are better varieties around.

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Speedy says...
Sometimes silly common names given to
some fruits can build peoples expectation to then make tasting them dissapointing.
One example is "Chocolate pudding fruit"
for Black Sapote or Black Persimmon.
It tastes nothing like chocolate, but then some people will still argue that it does.

I like black sapote on it's own or mixed with other things.

another thing is cultural info on the uses of the fruits in other countries, eg Santol is often eaten with salt,
sugar and chilli, like when you eat green mango.
and who these days would say no to green papaya salad,
when 25-30yrs ago people would think you had rocks in your head if you said you eat raw green papaya.

sometimes it can be down to varietal differences, or harvest time, post harvest ripening or other 'process' before eating.

Some insipid tasting fruits can taste great grown on a different soil, climate or time of year.
I've tasted Cedar Bay Cerries that develop in the winter and are sweeter than the summer ones on the same bush.

Then you've got personal tastes and preferences, it's such a subjective thing.
genetically, some people are more sensitive to tastes like bitterness.
the same may be true for other tastes.

Kei apple is very sour slightly apricoty.
I like them fresh, but good for jam and jelly.
downy rose myrtle =Ceylon Hill Cherry- yummy

I love Rollinia, though you can get fantastic tasting ones as well as not
so good and poor tasting fruit.

HappyEarth says...
Just a thought ... i think it is important to give a new fruit a few goes - as quite often the flavour and taste grows on you after each subsequent tasting. This has happen to me with lognans and wampis.

Rich
www.happyearth.com.au

Diana says...
Thanks for all your information, those are all really good points and interesting to know. I can't wait to get some fruit from my rollinia and cherry of rio grande now. It doesn't sound like anyone has tried pitombas. The description says 'soft, melting, juicy flesh with a highly aromatic slightly acid flavour. Taste comparable to an apricot.'

Has anyone grown aerial potatoes? I grew some winged yams and new guinea beans last summer. The vine has beautiful heart-shaped purple and green leaves, it was very decorative, but the yam was a bit bitter with an aftertaste. I think I left it in the ground too long. The new guinea beans (a marrow-like thing, not a bean) were very bitter and inedible to me, even when picked tiny.
I do like arrowroot tubers,though.

Thanks,

Diana.

Tropicdude says...
I just tasted my first Rollinia last weekend, at first I was put off by the look of the fruits insides, it looked like a white slime, also I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to testing weird looking things.

but I am glad I did, I tested it and I was surprised, it did not have a slimy consistency, it was more like cream, no fiber, and was very sweet. I ate the whole half of the fruit they gave me.

I also tried Santol, I did not care for it.

Store bought dragon fruit I have tasted were very bland, but I would give a few more tries. I d like to test the white variety and also fresh from plant.

Only tried 1 Jaboticaba ( the last one on the tree ) it was good tasting like a grape. Rambutans vary a lot in taste, this year they were very good.

Some people find miracle fruit bland, but I find that the more you suck on them the more you want.

how a fruit is used / prepared also makes a difference, I mean take the lemon, lets say you never tried one, and you tasted one, you would say that it was so sour you couldn't eat it! anyway this is the case with the garcinia xanthochymus ( yellow Mangosteen) I tried one fresh and it was sour and very acid. this year I decided to make a juice from it, I only had 3 fruit, but they are so "powerful" I was able to make 2L from those 3 med sized fruit. and it was delicious, kind of like passion fruit mixed with tangerine.

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Diana says...
Thanks for that tip, Jujube.

I didn't know that new guinea bean has to be big before it is edible- the opposite of zucchini, which is more tender and sweet when small. Very big new guinea bean fruit are presumably not so nice, they are pretty impressive though (we had one about as tall as me).

Speedy, I have a yellow dragonfruit plant about ten centimetres high, I think it will be about a year before I get any fruit from it, but I look forward to it.

Diana.

Db says...
Jenny, same thing happened with me with black sapote that I bought couple of weeks back from local market here, it was huge in size (600 grams), I kept it for a week at room temp to rippen, it turned black so i thought its ready. But unfortunately it was completely tasteless, but it was not fully ripened.. I was having high expectation as I recently potted 'Superb' variety of black sapote from Daleys. I'm bit worried how my superb will taste if it ever fruits..

Nick says...
I agree with HappyEarth, when I first tasted a red tamarillo I had to add a tonne of sugar to make it barely palatable, now I can eat a few without any sugar and enjoy it!

Jantina says...
I had one from Perry's nursery and some from Jason and found them all delicious.

Julie says...
peetah, my unnamed white sapote which I grew from seed is very disappointing. They ripen too close together and don't keep - they are also slightly bitter.

Maybe a named or grafted variety would have done better.

Brendan says...
Have to agree Itdepends, like you, I don't like the taste of the pineapple guava. Mine taste 10 times better!

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Jantina says...
Damn Amanda, and it's my fastest growing tree too. Sigh.

Mike says...
Jantina, I'll email you on Tuesday from work.I have 2 good gold types.If you want a few other vegies seeds,tubers etc I can chuck some in the bag.

Jantina says...
Amanda , Jason told me they were'nt much chop but I was still hopeful. You win some you lose some.