I tried about 40 different mango cultivars this summer, looking for the best tree to plant in my backyard, and Sweet Tart is currently #1 at the top of my list.
Didn't you say that Lemon Zest was your nr. 1 this year? Which one is better flavor wise in your opinion? I like other people commenting on disease resistance and production (besides flavor of course), so I'm getting one anyway..
LZ
*was* my number one mango of the season, but the Sweet Tart very recently stole the lead. I'm kind of surprised, but that is what my tastebuds are telling me. It's a very close race.
Here's how I think of the flavors:
A perfect Lemon Zest is absolutely delicious... it has more simple & mild - but one-of-a-kind flavors that don't really taste much like mango (to me). It has no kick, spice, resin, turpentine, sour, funkyness at all... just 'dessert' flavors... of candied lemon peel + orange sherbet. It is a beautiful mango - a decent size, shapely curves - a good one looks so nice it's almost hard to take a knife to. When I eat a LZ I think "
Wow, that is suave & sweet and citrusy. A refined, 5-star piece of fruit, indeed! Let's have a moment of silence to appreciate its purity of taste." My BRAIN thinks that the LZ is a more classy, respectable, beautiful mango. But I wonder, if I ate them for a couple years.. would I get tired of that lemoney taste?
When I eat a good Sweet Tart, I think "
OMG! That is just OUTRAGEOUS!" - and I get a bit excited and greedy. It tastes like a super sweet "mango" as the base flavor... but with all this kinky weirdness -- cola syrup spiked with little nips of 'sour candy' flavors --- forming additional layers of the spectrum. It's more complex, more intense... and more "potent." Like good Thai food, a tiny bite "bursts" with flavor all over your tounge. It has more dimensions that just the "sweet lemony suaveness" of the LZ. And the flavor seem to change more as it ripens. My tongue says "
MORE! MORE! YUM! MORE! WANT!"
I'm thinking that the "freakier" taste of the ST might be more fulfilling over the long run, and has better production so I could share with friends + neighbors. But I may plant both!