Clarification: Yes, cocktail trees are cheating, lol. But points for attempting to find a loophole! No grafting extra plants outside of the 5 to the trunks/branches/vines to get around the 5-plant-only total. ----
I'm still having trouble answering my own question, so I hope to continue to see more answers to give me input!
Some of the plants I'm considering at the moment include: Pitangatuba, Okari nut (Terminalia kaernbachii), Pitomba, Salak, Tampoi, African Apricot, Baobab, Burahol, Cambuca, Aglaia edulis...
If I was guaranteed to see fruit in my lifetime, Baobab might make the list for instance because I could eat the leaves in the meantime, and fruiting it even once on US soil to taste it would be quite an accomplishment and really exciting. I guess by that same logic, mangosteen should be considered - but then again, if by the nature of this fantasy I am guaranteed good quality fruit at some point, I suppose it's not much of an accomplishment to take any pride in that in fact my magical-wish trees produced fruit for me, even in the contiguous US.
I guess this is like having a fruit/plant genie grant you 5 plant wishes (and no wishing for more wishes!/cocktail trees). Magical plants that will grow well and produce good quality fruit.
Maybe I should consider cacao, which has more than 1 edible use, and also is fairly medicinal - having use as not only a mild stimulant, but also a diuretic, antioxidant, mood stabilizer, and properties that have been shown to be anti-HIV. That's pretty cool.
Of course, when I think about that, I start to think maybe I should concentrate all my 5 wishes on plants that are primarily medicinal - I mean, wouldn't it be a great service to humanity if I could be guaranteed to grow healthy plants that are very rare and have some of the most potent medicine and needed in the world, so that I could share their medicine with other people because the plant is guaranteed to produce so I don't have to be stingy about hording the fruit to myself?
Lol, to me this is such a philosophical question...
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In reply to some of the above comments, I would say that for me, durian and jackfruit would not make the list because my experiences so far with the taste of both are pleasant but not something I go wild over. I am currently growing jackfruit though, and plan to attempt durian perhaps next year, so maybe through those experiences some day my answer would change, because I know at least both are prolific food producers with a really interesting aesthetic. If I decide I really love the taste of a particular variety, perhaps this could be worth it to me. But as it stands now, I could take or leave either of them.
My experience tasting Rambutan has been a perpetual disappointment to me. I have only bought them in the stores/farmer's markets, so am likely not sampling any select cultivar, but I am less found of their texture than of the texture of lychee, and to m the flavor has an egg-y quality that I really do not like. Generally speaking, I do not like any fruit that reminds me of eggs, egg nog, etc. I am growing canistel but have never tasted one, and so we'll see someday if it turns out this also means I don't care for canistel or similar fruit.
Many people have high praise for pulasan, so maybe I should consider that on my list, although I have not tasted them yet.
The mention of the mulberry made me realize that even while I enjoy mulberry specifically, and berries in general, I think I am not a big enough fan of berries to likely include any on my list. Same with melons. I LOVE growing bananas, but since I am not actually a big fan of the taste of bananas, I know this would not make the cut for me either.
I don't know much about longkong and duku, maybe I should consider one of them...
Wow, that chamba sounds delicious! At the moment I don't think I like citrus strongly enough to include any on my list, nor anything that tastes strongly like citrus fruits, but I do know that I love the experience of growing lemons, and at one time a Bearss lemon would have made the list. I also would consider growing a tangerine, based purely on the fact that I love the taste, and could eat multiple tangerines every day for the rest of my life if I had the opportunity. They are also a useful plant because I assume that like other citrus, you can cook with the leaves as an herb, and also eat the flowers - something which I do all the time with my other citrus plants. I am growing 2 types of tangerines now but as of this year have only had a single flower, which was the first the plants have ever produced since they are new to my yard and still fairly small.
Ugh, this question is so hard for me because there are so many things I want to grow, choosing only 5 is torture!
