Truly tropical top 5

[gozp]

California ST, hard to beat at this time or anytime of the year. They are sweeter and more complex than any mangos I've ever had anywhere

That sure is a yummy sweetart.

[Mark in Texas]

Behl, good to know about the Peach Cobbler and picking the right moment to harvest any new fruit is trial and error.  I pulled my first Sweet Tart when it was almost 100% colored up.  It was delicious, almost too much (rich) for one sitting, smelled like perfume.

Orange Sherbert is no hype. Slowed by the decision to exclusively license it, it will eventually take its place among the top tier. For me, it remains in the top 5.

Wasn't implying hype, just some confusion and rumors as to whether or not what they have is the real deal as bred and released as Orange Sherbert.  Glad you have it and love it!

[simon_grow]

My top five are
1 Lemon Zest
2 Sweet Tart
3 Kesar
4 Seniorita
5 Leo Keitt seedling

Simon

What is this LEO KEITT SEEDLING a couple of you are talking about?

Thanks,
Joe.

Leo Manuel grew a Keitt seedling.  It turned out to be a great-tasting mango.  (Why don't you call it "Leo?"  Frances Hargrave was a Keitt seedling also, wasn't it?)

Hey John, I hope that Leo does eventually name it because it was excellent tasting even when compared to the numerous named varieties that it went up against. We need more data to collect over several more years to see if it is consistently a good Mango. Leo planted the seed so it will be up to him to give this Mango a name. I will try to find out more about this variety next time I visit him. Hopefully production is good. I’ll also ask about vigor and disease resistance.

Simon

[JF]

This variety first fruited 3 years ago when Ashok and I visited Leo. He gave us one fruit we were amazed of the quality of the fruit. According to Leo so far this seedling has been a shy bearer like his Leo coconut but this it is younger and it is quite promising. As Simon said it’s is a top tier mango that competes with most of Zill ne varieties.  The tree is a medium grower

[simon_grow]

California ST, hard to beat at this time or anytime of the year. They are sweeter and more complex than any mangos I've ever had anywhere

I just cut open this Sweet Tart grown in Anaheim Hills area of SoCal and it was, as Frank described, one of the sweetest and most complex mangos I’ve ever eaten! The Mysterious Mr. AZ sent me a few different Sweet Tarts grown either on Manilla rootstock or Florida Turpentine rootstock and asked me to compare and contrast the two.

This fruit grown on Manilla rootstock was sent to me rock hard and green on October 4. There was not a bit of yellow on its skin so I ripened it with bottom heat set at 93F and turned the fruit multiple times a day to try to get even ripening. After 10 days, the outer skin was slightly wrinkly and the fruit had a very light sweet smell to it.

The flavor was phenomenal and I let it get to this very ripe wrinkly stage because i like it very sweet with just enough acidity to balance out the intense sweetness. It had a strong Indochinese flavor component that was acidic and multidimensional and not just sour like lemon or vinegar. The juice was thick and viscous because of all the sugar. This Fruit had a Brix reading of 30%!

I’m really shocked that this fruit developed such fine flavor and such a high level of sugars considering the fruit was completely green and rock hard when I received it. Here are some pictures when they first arrived at my house.

[simon_grow]

Some pictures did not load for some reason.
Here are some pictures of the Sweet Tart on Manilla rootstock cut open. It had a Brix of 30%
Postimage not working, I’ll try again tomorrow
Simon

[simon_grow]

Ripe fruit





Simon

[zands]

Nice to see Carrie mango so well represented. When I eat one I say to myself that  it is as good as any new Zill such as LZ and ST. I would be happy to eat Carrie all mango season if there were such a Carrie tree. (no there is not)

[Tropicalgrower89]

Nice to see Carrie mango so well represented. When I eat one I say to myself that  it is as good as any new Zill such as LZ and ST. I would be happy to eat Carrie all mango season if there were such a Carrie tree. (no there is not)

I'm a big Carrie fan also. I have a Carrie mango tree and I've just grafted some Carrie budwood onto one of my Glenn branches to have two varieties on one tree.

[Mark in Texas]

Ripe fruit





Simon

Nice!  Amazed that the green fruit was that sugary.

Eyes closed, savoring the moment while I chew on a ST seed.



Change gears....wife and I have tried about every kind of processing we can including using a big spoon with a sharpened edge on one side to spoon it out.  Wife came up with what we both like best - cut the "cheeks" off the seed and with a very sharp knife cut lengthwise into 1" or so wide strips.  Using the paring knife she cuts along and against the peel one end to the other.  The meat comes off clean in a thick strip making for nice chunks.  I like to pull the peel strips between my teeth to take off every bit of the meat, like you would an artichoke leaf.   

[simon_grow]

Mark, these Sweet starts we’re shipped to me dark green, one of them had a tiny bit of yellow, but the rest were completely green and rock hard. They were so hard that the person that shipped the fruit to me didn’t use any packing material at all and the box was crushed on one corner yet every fruit, so far, has been perfect. Here in SoCal, we get less rains and the fruit ripens on the tree for extended periods of time which seems to make them very sweet as long as we are careful not to overwater.

I’ve had excellent tasting Sweet Tarts so I was expecting the Brix to be around 24-26 but I was blown away with the 30% reading! The density of flavor was just incredible. I believe this is the highest Brix reading I have taken for the Sweet Tart variety.

Eating this mango is like eating candy, I can see why some people say they can’t eat more than one of these ultra sweet flavor bombs.

Simon

[zands]

Nice to see Carrie mango so well represented. When I eat one I say to myself that  it is as good as any new Zill such as LZ and ST. I would be happy to eat Carrie all mango season if there were such a Carrie tree. (no there is not)

I'm a big Carrie fan also. I have a Carrie mango tree and I've just grafted some Carrie budwood onto one of my Glenn branches to have two varieties on one tree.

Carrie goes way back to Lawrence Zill. Carrie endures and cures all at the same time. The recent hurricane did not do a lick of damage to my Carrie tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_(mango)  Written by by Alex in Palm Beach.

[simon_grow]

I just cut open the Sweet Tart grown on Florida Turpentine rootstock and it had a Brix of 26%. It was an excellent Mango but the sweetness and intensity of flavor was much stronger in the fruit with 30% Brix. I also noticed that this fruit had more fibers around the fruit.

This is just a small sampling of fruit from two different rootstocks and we are just starting to track this kind of info but no conclusions can be drawn until we get a lot more data from more fruit from different trees and over multiple years. There can be significant differences in the quality of fruit even from the same tree.

Here is a picture of the Sweet Tart when it was first sent to me



And here it is 11 days later ripened with bottom heat set at 93F








Simon

[Mark in Texas]

Great pix, thanks for sharing.  Wife and I both commented that a particular ST we ate was almost too rich for one setting.   We did put half back in the fridge.  How folks can eat one or two a day by themselves is unreal.

[zands]

Mark

Your persistence has been rewarded. Sweet tart and other mangoes easy to grow in S Florida but takes strategy and IQ to pull this off in Hill Country Texas yeah I have been to New Braunfels a while back for BBQ

Anyways.... For variation slice off the mango cheeks. Scoop out flesh with a spoon. Then scrape the skin as close as you can w a spoon. Nice exciting flavors can pop up close to the skin.  There/not there meaning variable results.

Real mango shit tests are chewing around the seed and scraping the skin w  a spoon.  Those are boundary aka transition areas. Doing a mango test by eating mango flesh is for children and amateurs. The connoisseur taste is close to seed and skin. All else is commentary.

[simon_grow]

The flesh around the skin is my favorite part. It tastes like it has the most flavor components, turpenes I suppose. If you get too close to the skin, there can be some sort of natural component in the skin that tickles the back of my throat and makes me want to cough.

The good thing about these flavor grenade type mangos is that a little bit goes a long way and in the case of Sweet Tart, the fruit grows in clusters and are often relatively small. The Sweet Tart variety can even hold a decent amount of fruit in a pot although it will need judicious pruning.

People that have a basement, balcony or small patio can grow this variety and the small mangos will go a long ways in terms of not needing a lot of flesh to be satisfied.

Simon

[zands]

The flesh around the skin is my favorite part. It tastes like it has the most flavor components, turpenes I suppose. If you get too close to the skin, there can be some sort of natural component in the skin that tickles the back of my throat and makes me want to cough.

The good thing about these flavor grenade type mangos is that a little bit goes a long way and in the case of Sweet Tart, the fruit grows in clusters and are often relatively small. The Sweet Tart variety can even hold a decent amount of fruit in a pot although it will need judicious pruning.

People that have a basement, balcony or small patio can grow this variety and the small mangos will go a long ways in terms of not needing a lot of flesh to be satisfied.

Simon

You get it about scraping the mango skin! Great sweet tart testimony and accounting.  Lets talk  May 2018 when mangoes are looking good here

[JF]

The flesh around the skin is my favorite part. It tastes like it has the most flavor components, turpenes I suppose. If you get too close to the skin, there can be some sort of natural component in the skin that tickles the back of my throat and makes me want to cough.

The good thing about these flavor grenade type mangos is that a little bit goes a long way and in the case of Sweet Tart, the fruit grows in clusters and are often relatively small. The Sweet Tart variety can even hold a decent amount of fruit in a pot although it will need judicious pruning.

People that have a basement, balcony or small patio can grow this variety and the small mangos will go a long ways in terms of not needing a lot of flesh to be satisfied.

Simon

You get it about scraping the mango skin! Great sweet tart testimony and accounting.  Lets talk  May 2018 when mangoes are looking good here

My good friend Zands, while you are waiting we continue on until January.

[zands]

My good friend Zands, while you are waiting we continue on until January.

Friend. Looks like October Maha Chanok

[JF]

31 Brix California Sweet Tart showing us mango magic

[WGphil]

Sweet tart looks like the winner no matter location

Some types don't translate locations as well as the ST

Like the Kensington or the Julie never gets as good in Florida as it does back home

The ST is best tasting and it is translating well

[Mftek]

Those ST’s are looking fantastic!

[Mark in Texas]

Scoop out flesh with a spoon. Then scrape the skin as close as you can w a spoon. Nice exciting flavors can pop up close to the skin.  There/not there meaning variable results.

I know and like I said in a previous post I treat the skin like an artichoke leaf.   "Change gears....wife and I have tried about every kind of processing we can including using a big spoon with a sharpened edge on one side to spoon it out.  Wife came up with what we both like best - cut the "cheeks" off the seed and with a very sharp knife cut lengthwise into 1" or so wide strips.  Using the paring knife she cuts along and against the peel one end to the other.  The meat comes off clean in a thick strip making for nice chunks.  I like to pull the peel strips between my teeth to take off every bit of the meat, like you would an artichoke leaf. "

Using my WorkSharp tool I put a sharp edge on one side of a big S/S spoon.  Works pretty good.

New Braunfels is nice albeit very congested thanks to IH35 running thru it.  Try Fredericksburg - very cool place with lots of great music, food, about 50 wineries, breweries, and now trendy distilleries. 

[johnb51]

Fredericksburg.  1,693' elevation.  Sounds nice.  I'm gunna check it out if we decide to move back to Texas.  5 years in DFW Metroplex ('06 to '11).   Liked it a lot, but probably want something more "country" if we move back.

[JF]

First time I tried Ugly Bettey very impress with this variety. The mango is sweet, chalky and piney. Remind me of HK with the piney taste brix 25.