Tropical Fruit Tasting

[tammylc]

I'm hosting a little tasting event for some friends tonight. We'll be tasting some unusual and not-so-unusual fruits that I brought back from a trip to Florida. I'm trying to figure out what order to offer things. In a wine tasting, you taste from dry to sweet. In a salsa tasting, you taste from mild to hot. Any tropical fruit experts out there want to weigh in on how you'd order the following?

Black Sapote

Carambola (aka star fruit)

Kumquat

Passionfruit

Papaya

Guava

Pitaya (aka dragonfruit - red fleshed, if that makes a difference)

Atemoya

Thanks!

[Schneier]

Serve them all at once.

[tammylc]

Serve them all at once.

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In my experience with these softs of things, I've found that people generally like having a little more ceremony attached to it, and doing things one at a time creates the opportunity to tell people about what they're eating, etc. Which they seem to really like. It would be a really quick event if I just handed everyone a plate of fruit! There is enough of (almost) everything that people will have the opportunity to compare and contrast as well.

[annecros]

I'm hosting a little tasting event for some friends tonight.  We'll be tasting some unusual and not-so-unusual fruits that I brought back from a trip to Florida.  I'm trying to figure out what order to offer things.  In a wine tasting, you taste from dry to sweet.  In a salsa tasting, you taste from mild to hot.  Any tropical fruit experts out there want to weigh in on how you'd order the following?

Black Sapote

Carambola (aka star fruit)

Kumquat

Passionfruit

Papaya

Guava

Pitaya (aka dragonfruit - red fleshed, if that makes a difference)

Atemoya

Thanks!

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Perhaps start with the lighter fruits, atemoya and crambola, then the fuller citrus of the kumquat for a transition, then passionfruit and dragonfruit (I would almost do those together) guava and then papaya (a lot of people mistake the flavors for each other, and it would be nice to give then a direct contrast) then finish of course with the Black Sapote - sort of like dessert.

Otherwise, you might use the atemoya and crambola for "palate cleansers" and sort of group the other fruits by type.

Very adventerous, I think you guys will have fun no matter how you present.

[miladyinsanity]

I'd not serve it light to sweet.

Black Sapote

Starfruit

Atemoya

Kumquat

Dragonfruit

Papaya with a squeeze of lime

Guava--if you have an Asian supermarket nearby, see whether you can get some sour plum powder, in case it's not the sweet kind

Passionfruit

[Shalmanese]

I would either serve them from most subtle to least subtle or serve them geographically.

From the dragonfruit that I've had, I would serve them first since they are almost tasteless.

[tammylc]

From comments here and reading about the various fruits, we ended up doing this order:

Black Sapote

Atemoya

Carambola

Kumquat

Dragonfruit

Papaya

Guava

Passionfruit

This was a pretty good order. As Shalmanese said, the dragonfruit were very mild, so on the one hand they should have been earlier. But on the other hand, they made for a nice palate cleanser after the very potent kumquat. I think I'd move the kumquat last if I were to do this again, and then put the dragonfruit before the carambola. The black sapote are mild but flavorful, so it's good to do those very early. But probably any order would have worked.

Anyway, all my guests (and I) had a really good time and learned a lot!

[miladyinsanity]

I wanted to ask you, how come the king of fruit, Durian, wasn't in your tasting?

[tammylc]

Because Robert is Here didn't have any for sale.

However, I did end up pulling a can of Mangosteen in heavy syrup out of my cupboard. That ought to count for something.

(It was fine, but nothing to write home about. But just as canned peaches or pears are mere shadows of their fresh selves, I expect fresh mangosteen would be another thing entirely.)

[miladyinsanity]

However, I did end up pulling a can of Mangosteen in heavy syrup out of my cupboard.  That ought to count for something. 

(It was fine, but nothing to write home about.  But just as canned peaches or pears are mere shadows of their fresh selves, I expect fresh mangosteen would be another thing entirely.)

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Oh absolutely. There is nothing like fresh mangosteen. *drool*

[tammylc]

My report of the fruit tasting is up on my blog, complete with pictures. Thanks again for all your help!

[Domestic Goddess]

Tammy - I would like to ask if the papaya you served was completely ripe? This means that the papaya would be soft and mushy. That would be the sweetest flavor that you can get from the papaya. It is a favorite breakfast item in the Philippines esp. in the hotels. It is served with calamansi halves so you can squeeze the juice over the papaya and you eat the papaya with a spoon. My dad and I love this for breakfast.

Oh, it is also common to have guava trees in the backyard of most Filipino homes. We never bought guavas but just raided our tree or the neighbors. LOL

[tammylc]

Tammy - I would like to ask if the papaya you served was completely ripe? This means that the papaya would be soft and mushy. That would be the sweetest flavor that you can get from the papaya. It is a favorite breakfast item in the Philippines esp. in the hotels. It is served with calamansi halves so you can squeeze the juice over the papaya and you eat the papaya with a spoon. My dad and I love this for breakfast.

Oh, it is also common to have guava trees in the backyard of most Filipino homes. We never bought guavas but just raided our tree or the neighbors. LOL

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It certainly seemed quite ripe, although I'm not sure I'd call it "mushy." So perhaps it would have been better with another day or two to ripen.

If I had a guava tree in my back yard I'd spend all my time sniffing it! It smelled so good!

[Domestic Goddess]

Tammy - very ripe guavas have a tendency to smell like what my mother would call ... "unwashed armpits". LOL It never bothered me.

[tammylc]

Yes, "BO" was one of the descriptors that people used in describing the aroma. As I said in my blog post, it was a pleasantly musky aroma when the fruit was whole, but once it was cut into it was much much stronger. Very interesting.