Author Topic: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?  (Read 20979 times)

fruitlovers

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #25 on: January 08, 2018, 12:20:06 AM »
Yes rating avocados is subjective. But then again rating the quality of any fruit (or food) is subjective. Still if you look at a list of people's favorites the same names will come up on the top over and over again.
Keep in mind though that the favorite cultivars of commercial growers does not have much to do with what is people's favorites. They choose mostly based on productivity, shelf life, uniformity, looks, disease resistance. Taste is only one small component for them. A lot of people wrongly assume that because a certain cultivar is the most widely grown that it must have the best quality, in terms of taste.We know this is not true with Tommy Atkins avocado, or Red Delicious apples (the old top selling cultivar), and i don't think it's true with Hass either. But it's not surprising when there are so many hundreds of cultivars of avocados.
The fuerte was the top commercially grown avocado for a long time before it was supplanted by Hass. There is evolution even in the Hass. They just keep calling it by the same name even though the trees are different than the Hass from decades ago, . This is just because the name is so implanted by now in people's minds and the marketers don't want to move on to a different name. Remarketing under a new name costs money and time to get consumer approval.
Oscar

johnb51

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #26 on: January 08, 2018, 08:10:25 AM »
As long as it has pebbly skin, turns dark when ripe, is small in size, and is pear-shaped (it will sell)!
John

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #27 on: January 08, 2018, 08:20:03 AM »
Otherwise, what's the BEST TASTING AVOCADO FOR FLORIDA?  Pinkerton?

Kicker is survival from disease pressures like anthracnose.  if you can't grow them than taste is moot.  From what I know about Florida and rubbing elbows with Carlos I would bet on Reed and Pinkerton which can take the heat and high RH.  To get anal anthracnose attacks fruit that has a skin less than  .20 mm.  According to a very comprehensive field trial study done in Weslaco, published in 1991, no anthracnose attacks occurred on fruit with skins .30 mm or better.

It's reported that high oil types like Hazzard and Rincon do well in the tropics.  I got sticks from U.C.R. which never took.

One RGV grower, border of Mexico and Texas, swears by Marcus Pumpkin.  Utuado also gets good reviews.

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #28 on: January 08, 2018, 08:26:51 AM »
Keep in mind though that the favorite cultivars of commercial growers does not have much to do with what is people's favorites. They choose mostly based on productivity, shelf life, uniformity, looks, disease resistance. Taste is only one small component for them.

Bingo! Enter Hass.  (Been preaching this for years.)   Reason why Gwen didn't make it is because it didn't turn black upon ripening - market acceptance.  Didn't matter that it produces 3 times as much in half the acreage required by Hass.  Being the grand daughter of Hass it was initially pushed to de-thrown Hass as the commercial variety.


 

fruitnewbie

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #29 on: January 11, 2018, 01:04:31 AM »
Kahaluu for Hawaiian varieties but not an awesome producer. I also like Yamagata.

Mike T

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #30 on: January 11, 2018, 06:52:51 AM »
Did I ad edronol and pinkerton to my list? I am near the tropical limit of where Guatemalan avos can fruit and survive. Hass, fuerte and so many others are unsuitable and it took a lot of trial and error to determine that only wurtz,hazzard,Reed and shepard were worth growing. People keep trying to grow sharwil only like me to be disappointed. Luckily the 4 that can grow here are good quality types but they would prefer to be 1600km poleward of me.

Mugenia

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #31 on: January 11, 2018, 11:33:07 AM »
This avocado is pretty good but it has a lot of sandy like kidney stones in the meat. I have never seen anything like this. Is there such a thing?


johnb51

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #32 on: January 11, 2018, 04:56:44 PM »
This avocado is pretty good but it has a lot of sandy like kidney stones in the meat. I have never seen anything like this. Is there such a thing?

My friend's Choquette avocados had those "stones" some years, but not every year.  And if I recall correctly, most years it did NOT have them.  But the tree got too large for a small yard so it had to be removed.  It was a good, but not great, variety, and looked similar to the avocado pictured here.  It was a large avocado.
John

joehewitt

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #33 on: January 11, 2018, 05:45:39 PM »
One thing that is not mentioned frequently enough is that avocados increase in richness when left on the tree an extra long time. I discovered this when I tasted some Hass from my tree that was hanging about 18 months. The butter factor was so high, it was like I was eating a Reed or some Hawaiian avocado.

johnb51

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #34 on: January 11, 2018, 08:16:50 PM »
One thing that is not mentioned frequently enough is that avocados increase in richness when left on the tree an extra long time. I discovered this when I tasted some Hass from my tree that was hanging about 18 months. The butter factor was so high, it was like I was eating a Reed or some Hawaiian avocado.
Good point.  That's why even West Indian avocados grown in Florida taste pretty good when they stay on the tree long enough--Simmonds, Choquette, etc.
John

fruitlovers

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #35 on: January 11, 2018, 09:05:42 PM »
One thing that is not mentioned frequently enough is that avocados increase in richness when left on the tree an extra long time. I discovered this when I tasted some Hass from my tree that was hanging about 18 months. The butter factor was so high, it was like I was eating a Reed or some Hawaiian avocado.
Yes, type of cultivar is only one factor affecting taste and oil content. Fruits should be left on until at least until after the fruits are no longer glossy. Other things also affect taste, like soil type, fertilizer, amount of sun exposure, climate, etc. So it's not really completely fair to compare quality of different cultivars, unless they came from the same farm, and had same growing conditions.
Oscar

buddy roo

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #36 on: January 12, 2018, 08:17:52 AM »
Whitsell and gwen,and yes i read the bad on the whitsell 20 years ago written by someone that should have tasted the fruit first, i place the whitsell over hass and the gwen over whitsell.             Patrick

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #37 on: January 12, 2018, 09:23:45 AM »
The Monroe and Catalina I've had from Homestead was very good.  I was shocked a "Slimcado" could taste so good.  Texture was fine, easy to peel.

Dada

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #38 on: January 27, 2018, 09:11:02 AM »
One thing that is not mentioned frequently enough is that avocados increase in richness when left on the tree an extra long time. I discovered this when I tasted some Hass from my tree that was hanging about 18 months. The butter factor was so high, it was like I was eating a Reed or some Hawaiian avocado.
Good point.  That's why even West Indian avocados grown in Florida taste pretty good when they stay on the tree long enough--Simmonds, Choquette, etc.
Yes I agree. One good cultivar I like from Hawaii is Nishikawa. I havent had Reed so I dont know how it compares to that one!

JF

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #39 on: January 27, 2018, 09:30:38 AM »
Muna avocado is one of the best west India I’ve ever had oily & creamy not as rich or nutty as hass type cados but much better than the water cados like Monroe, Catalina and Hawaiians




« Last Edit: January 27, 2018, 09:32:18 AM by JF »

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #40 on: January 27, 2018, 10:15:06 AM »
Yes I agree. One good cultivar I like from Hawaii is Nishikawa.

Have heard the oil content can get so high on that one, like 25%, that the texture turns pasty.

Fine looking fruit JF!

fruitlovers

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #41 on: January 28, 2018, 10:35:12 PM »
Kahaluu can go as high as 28% oil. We have a whole range of avocados here from watery West Indian types to very high oil types, and everything in between. I believe we have a bigger selection of cultivars here than anywhere else in USA. There are so many available for sale. Unfortunately most vendors don't label the cultivar names.
This poster lists 107 types grown here, and it only scratches the surface of what's available.
http://www.fruitlovers.com/AvocadoPoster.jpg

Oscar

FrankDrebinOfFruits

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #42 on: January 29, 2018, 01:25:52 AM »
My favorite this year might be green gold. Solid flavor, late season.  That was out of Hass, Lamb Hass, Ota, Sharwil, Holiday, Murashige, and a few others.

johnb51

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #43 on: January 29, 2018, 08:39:49 AM »
My favorite this year might be green gold. Solid flavor, late season.  That was out of Hass, Lamb Hass, Ota, Sharwil, Holiday, Murashige, and a few others.
Wow!  Still hoping that one might be a possibility for Florida.
John

ricshaw

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #44 on: January 29, 2018, 09:45:24 PM »



johnb51

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John

spaugh

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #46 on: January 29, 2018, 11:46:57 PM »



It would worse if she said "i don't eat avocados".  Have you guys met these people?  Thats crazy talk
Brad Spaugh

alangr088

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #47 on: January 30, 2018, 12:28:57 AM »
Kahaluu can go as high as 28% oil. We have a whole range of avocados here from watery West Indian types to very high oil types, and everything in between. I believe we have a bigger selection of cultivars here than anywhere else in USA. There are so many available for sale. Unfortunately most vendors don't label the cultivar names.
This poster lists 107 types grown here, and it only scratches the surface of what's available.
http://www.fruitlovers.com/AvocadoPoster.jpg

Yea I went to the Farmers Market in Hilo about 2 weeks ago and most sellers did not know the names of the avocado varieties they were selling.

palologrower

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Re: What is the best tasting avocado variety you have had?
« Reply #48 on: January 31, 2018, 12:59:09 PM »
Kahaluu and yani

ricshaw

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