A while back I searched through the history of this board gathering up various people's reviews of Inga species, and the biggest conclusion was that people's opinions differ.
For example, many found I. edulis the best or one of the best, but Oscar didn't agree. Overall, there was roughly about equal support for the best being I. cinnamomea, I. edulis, I. feuilleei, I. laurina, I. spectabilis, and I. striata. Due to the high level of disagreement, I strongly suspect that progeny is important. I. vulpina was ranked well but on average not as highly as the others.
One interesting one I never saw any ratings on was I.fastuosa. I know Oscar is/was growing it.
Here's quotes(mostly but not exclusively from this forum) about each one:
I. cinnamomea:
""nice cinnamon taste""
""Pennington calls this one of the best tasting ingas. I have a couple trees but not fruiting yet, but getting close, i hope!"" ""Yes Oscar, this is one of the best flavored Ingas, may be the best, and probably the one with more flesh to eat. I really like it.""
""Cinnammomea is often rated as one of the better tasting ones. The ones i've had so far on the cinnamomea the pulp clings to the seed. In other ingas the pulp is non cling.""
""My favorite inga is the cinnamomea, pulpy, very sweet, and more damage flies resistant ""
""heavily scented flowers""
I. edulis:
""That is one of the most mislabeled trees I have seen. Every Inga tree is generically slapped with the edulis tag it seems"" [Florida]
""The Inga edulis seems to be a weak grower from me. The Inga vera is a beast."" [Florida]
Rusty's Market (ástralía, kannski Cairns) - ""Inga edulis well over 5 ft and very thick but still young and firm"" ""Oscar's beans look so much smaller""
""Oscar: ""I like spectabilis most just because of mere quantity, they are huge pods with very big chunks around each seed, second would be feuillei, and third would be edulis""
""So which of the three taste the best and sweetest?"" ""Out of the ones I have tasted, Inga edulis is my favorite. The pods are super long and the pulp is very moist and sweet.""
""I've barely had my ice cream bean for a year and it's already over 6 ft.""
""According to Ducke (1949:33) there are two varieties of Inga edulis in existence, parvifolia and typica. The second variety, which is the one described here is the real ""inga-cipo"", with relatively large flowers and very long, thick fruits, which apparently only occur near settlements where it is intensively cultivated. It is one of the most popular fruit trees in the entire region
Fræbelgir: að 100sm. ""Best forms are in S. America"""
I. feiuilleei:
Actually like ice cream, according to Weird Fruit Explorer, though I. edulis said to be somewhat of a better fruit. Vs. I. vulpina: ""Feuillei is more vigorous.""
""Inga feuillei grows like weeds in a large pot for me. My seed-grown trees are less than 1 year in age and are 6+ ft tall.""
Oscar: ""I like spectabilis most just because of mere quantity, they are huge pods with very big chunks around each seed, second would be feuillei, and third would be edulis""
""The largest of the two is around 1.5 years from seed at 7ft. I have them growing in 18"" pots.""
""It has grown more than 2m in a 3l pot, now is in the ground, and more than 3m and branching nicely. It is +- 18 months.""
Fræbelgir: ""long"""
I. laurina:
"""What kind of Inga could this be ? Small , 10 to 12 cm , very juice and great flavor . Huge producer"" ... ""I was really thrilled when I tasted this one , far superior in taste than all the others I have tasted so far ."" ... ""Has been identified as Inga laurina.""
I. paterno:
"""it is tedious and you don't get a lot of flesh for the effort. ""
Cotyledons ""blanched, then salted and used in salads or desserts"""
I. spectabilis:
Not as good according to Weird Fruit Explorer (vs. I. edulis: ""a little dry, a little mealy... maybe a little weaker, and not as sweet... Inferior. Sorry, Colombia...."")
But according to Oscar: ""I am growing ... edulis, vulpina, gauchil, fastuosa, cinnamomea, feuillei, spectabilis. ... Right now i'm kind of especially fond of spectabilis, mostly because it is very large and has lots of good pulp. ... I like spectabilis most just because of mere quantity, they are huge pods with very big chunks around each seed, second would be feuillei, and third would be edulis ... taste is really great""
"" 2-3 years old now but I only planted it in the ground about 9 months ago. It's probably 3.5 feet tall, but it's quite wide -- maybe 5 feet in diameter.""
""Natural tendency of this tree is to form big umbrella shape. Just keep shortening the shoots that go horizontally, and eventually you will get upward growth"" ""Branches from fairly low down""
Fræbelgir: 30-70x8x3sm ""usually containing only scant pulp"" (ha? Svo hvað um I. spectabilis hjá Oscari?)"
I. striata:
Said to possibly be a subspecies of I. edulis, but: ""That is definitely not Inga edulis, nothing like it. It's probably not feuillei either""
Fræbelgir: 18x3sm. ""The flowers of this tree are about the size of apples. The leaves are dark green and at biggest the size of a small mountain papaya.""
Rjómaísbragð, meira vanilla-bragð en E. edulis en ekki eins sætt.
""I personally like this ice cream bean the best out of every ice cream bean I have eaten. The pulp was a lot less fibrous than the common ice cream bean, melting in the mouth like a sugar cube.""
""Early bearing"" þýðir ekki precocious, heldur er uppskerutíminn nóv-feb heldur en mar-júl."
I. vulpina:
"""Feuillei is more vigorous.""
""The Inga vulpina is a lot slower grower (3-4x) than all the other species of inga i have, probably because vulpina is considered dwarf compered to other species.""
""pods are very small compared to other species.""
Fræbelgir: að 6x3sm."
Hmm, I know I had come across some taste reviews of I. vulpina but I must not have recorded them...
Topic: Questions about Ice Cream Bean (Read 6055 times)