December annona tasting in Orange County

[Ethan]

This past Saturday, Dec 21 I was lucky enough to attend an annona tasting at the incredible home of a gentleman named Ashok and his beautiful family.  There was 20+ people there and everyone was very excited about the upcoming feast!  There were atemoyas and cherimoyas brought from San Diego and in the Orange County area.  There were all sort of varieties, lots of old favorites and some very new cvs. too.  Thank you to JF, Ashok, his family and anyone else that had a hand in the planning of this event, it was really a nice time.  I met lots of new friends and lots of old ones were there too, in fact from the TF forum there were at least 6 active members.  The event started with boxes of fruit being sorted and the fruit laid out on the tables, labeling was attached, judges score sheets passed out and we were just about ready to go.























Our host, JF and few dignitaires, Mrs. Elixir (Eunice Messner), Mr. El bumpo (Rudy Haluza) and Mr. Big Sister (Jim Neitzel)



Time to get down to business, the names of the fruits were drawn at random for the order in which they were tried.  Cherimoyas and atemoyas were tried side by side.



Our kind host Ashok, holding some of his cherimoyas up for people to judge the size and appearance of the fruit.



Seed count was taken in consideration along with taste and texture.



Lisa



Big Sister



Santa Rosa




Some of the discerning judges





And the winner of the day!





Our very own forum member Behl's cherimoya, damn good fruit!




Another interesting note, most of the atemoyas fell to the bottom of the score sheet when compared to cherimoyas, except AP which did OK.  A few of the cherimoya growers were concerned about recent rains and this fruit was not perfectly ripe or you should have tasted this other fruit last week or in another month.  Like any tasting, it is impossible to get a bunch of fruit picked perfectly ripe and have them all ripen at the same time, with that said, we had some amazing fruits.

The last part of the day I neglected to take photos of, I was too busy stuffing my face.  Ashok and his family were kind enough to bring in some absolutely incredible Indian food and one Cubano brought a pretty tasty guava pastry to top it all off.

Just to show you it was not all annona, there were a few dragon fruits for color.



Here are some pics of Ashoks trees, cherimoyas





One of his mangoes



Guava tree with giant guavas (name escapes me)



Trunk of the guava tree



No wonder the trees are so happy, they've got quite a view.



Thank you again to Ashok and his family for there kind hospitality, JF for all the work helping to put it together, his son for all the hard work he did and anyone else that made that day so much fun.  Hopefully I'll get invited back next year!

[thao]

Thanks Ethan for the great pictures and result. I'm going to make it to one of those taste test, one of these day.

[marklee]

Ethan,

Nice write up about the event. I had a great time and it was nice seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Ashok and Leena were great hosts.

I'll post some photos here of the event also.












Jim Neitzel with his "Big Sister"







Priestly Atemoya




Eunice's Great Mangos 25 year old trees


Eunice wanted some help in identifying this plant, no one could give a definite answer. Anyone know?

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Ethan

what a great event!

You guys are like the amsterdam of annonas....I have never seen so many different types in one place at the same time!

thanks for posting the photos, and information.

Congrats Behl!

[FlyingFoxFruits]

ethan,

i could be way off, but that unidentified plant reminds me of a syzygium sp.

[kh0110]

It was a memorable and succesful Cherimoyas tasting. Thank you JF/Behl for the invite, and hats off to Ashok and his wife Leena for being such great hosts.

I was able to finally meet the creator of my all time favorite cherimoya (the El Bumpo), Mr Rudy Haluza. Last but not least, I met my all time favorite cherimoyas vendor, Peter M. and my local grafted annonas vendor, Ethan.

And Congratulations, Behl!!!

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Thanks Ethan...Behl eh?  I believe one of the grafts I have on my tree is this cultivar.  Looking forward to it fruiting.  We'll try some more budwood soon!

[Saltcayman]

Thanks for the great post Ethan. It looks like it was a fantastic event!  All those annonas sure look good:). Dave

[AnnonAddict]

Wish I coulda made it! Looks awesome, thanks a bunch for posting Ethan!

[Ethan]

Thank you guys for your responses, it was great fun.

Thao, even with 5+hours of driving and tons of traffic, it was worth it.

Thank you for posting some photos Mark, you've got an eye for detail and composition. 

Thanks Adam, CA has already been compared to Amsterdam for it's varieties but they are not talking about cherimoyas.  There was a rumor that some FL. people might get to try some of these CA beauties.

Thanks Kho110, it was nice meeting you in person and getting to sit down and share some fruits together.

J, yes, make sure your Behl grafts grow, it is a good cherimoya for sure!

Thanks Dave, hopefully at some point you'll be able to have your own tasting on TCI!

Thanks Jack, I was honored to have been invited myself, really an awesome time!

The icing on the cake, I've a couple cherimoyas sitting on the counter here at home, waiting for them to soften!

Thanks again everybody.

 

[AnnonAddict]

The unindentified plant looks a whole lot like Wax Jambu... I am guessing some Syzygium?

[emegar]

Great writeup and photos, Ethan! Any chance you (or one of the other attendees) could write about runners-up? What other cherimoyas scored well? Thanks!

[ScottR]

Ethan, thanks for excellent report on Cherimoya gathering and big congratulations to Behl 

[nullzero]

Thank you Ashok (and his family), JF, and all others who made the event possible. Was very enjoyable time with great people.

Here is what I rated as the best from memory;

Pierce: This was #1 for me, great custard texture and taste was a 5/5 with excellent sweet flavor with banana and pineapple flavors.

Campos: #2, great sweet taste with nice acid balance.

Best Atemoya by far was African Pride, I would say African Pride was possibly in the top 5.

[shah8]

Rudy Haluza has been in this game a LOOOOOOONNG time...

[emegar]

Ethan, thanks for excellent report on Cherimoya gathering and big congratulations to Behl 

Indeed.  And thank you,  Behl, for the generosity you've shown in distributing budwood of your prize-winning cherimoya!

[nch]

Congrats, Behl, and thanks to Ethan and Mark for the reports.

[Ethan]

Here are the results, though I'd disagree with some of the rankings. 


#1   Behl
#2   Campas
#3   El Bumpo
#4   Pierce
#5   Mohan
#6   Santa Rosa
#7   Radhika
#8   Big Sister
#9   Maalina
#10   Honey Hart
#11   African Pride
#12   Fino De Jete (seedling)
#13   Oxheart
#14   Madhur
#15   Prisly
#16   Taiwan
#17   Geffner
#18   Vincent
#19   Lucida
#20   Lisa

[nullzero]

Here are the results, though I'd disagree with some of the rankings. 


#1   Behl
#2   Campas
#3   El Bumpo
#4   Pierce
#5   Mohan
#6   Santa Rosa
#7   Radhika
#8   Big Sister
#9   Maalina
#10   Honey Hart
#11   African Pride
#12   Fino De Jete (seedling)
#13   Oxheart
#14   Madhur
#15   Prisly
#16   Taiwan
#17   Geffner
#18   Vincent
#19   Lucida
#20   Lisa

Thanks Ethan for the posted results. Was ever category evenly balanced? Taste should of been double weighed I think personally.

For example I thought this sample of Behl for me was the following;

Taste: 3   Texture: 3   Seedness: 3   Appearance: 5   Size: 5   Total: 19

Double Weighed example: Taste: 6   Total: 22

Pierce

Taste: 5   Texture: 5   Seedness: 3   Appearance: 3   Size: 3   Total: 19

Double Weighed example: Taste: 10   Total: 26

Pierce is on a whole another level with taste, at least with this tasting and time of season. The two are not equal at all for ratings, I really think the taste should be double weighed. Someone else mentioned this at the tasting, forgot his name though.

[kh0110]

… I really think the taste should be double weighed. Someone else mentioned this at the tasting, forgot his name though.

Rudy H. did mention the same thing, nullzero.

[simon_grow]

Thanks for all the great pictures and descriptions. I have a Behl graft that took and I was going through some old posts and I thought that someone mentioned that Behl might be the same as Nata?
Simon

[JF]

Ethan

Great thread! This was a grand event with an incredible view of the coastal valleys. Did anyone take pictures of the giant 25-30' mango trees below Ashok's house? Mark thanks for posting your pictures I loved your dragon fruits and miracle fruit  presentation!

Nullzy, Ashok has collected all the data and I will be posting the combine scores of "taste and texture" this subject has been address many times in previous tasting with Leo Manual and Jim Nietzel so he knows what he's doing....on this date Behl got first place but Ashok gets all the glory.

I want to thank Ashok and Leena for being great host and a special thanks goes out to the folks who donated fruits. Also, my heartfelt thanks goes out to the three VIP's who shared their experiences and expertise.

We had a total of 44 varieties we evaluated 20 that were ripe unfortunately Guillermo who contributed 19 varieties was out of town for several week and he harvest his fruits 2 days before the event.
Regarding the atemoyas, we will enter them in the tasting next year but rate them against each other. My African Pride has maintain consistent for the last 6 weeks but Lisa is on the decline after the rains and colder nights.

[nullzero]

Ethan

Great thread! This was a grand event with an incredible view of the coastal valleys. Did anyone take pictures of the giant 25-30' mango trees below Ashok's house? Mark thanks for posting your pictures I loved your dragon fruits and miracle fruit  presentation!

Nullzy, Ashok has collected all the data and I will be posting the combine scores of "taste and texture" this subject has been address many times in previous tasting with Leo Manual and Jim Nietzel so he knows what he's doing....on this date Behl got first place but Ashok gets all the glory.

I want to thank Ashok and Leena for being great host and a special thanks goes out to the folks who donated fruits. Also, my heartfelt thanks goes out to the three VIP's who shared their experiences and expertise.

We had a total of 44 varieties we evaluated 20 that were ripe unfortunately Guillermo who contributed 19 varieties was out of town for several week and he harvest his fruits 2 days before the event.
Regarding the atemoyas, we will enter them in the tasting next year but rate them against each other. My African Pride has maintain consistent for the last 6 weeks but Lisa is on the decline after the rains and colder nights.

JF,

Thanks, I am a new with these tastings. I will trust the pros (Leo Manual and Jim Nietzel), I am just assuming too much. My taste buds really liked the Pierce.

[fruitlovers]

Ethan and Mark, thanks for posting. Looks like a great event. Wish i could have been there. I'm real partial to cherimoyas. Congratulations to forum member Behl for winning most coveted cherimoya award.

[TREESNMORE]

Ethan
 I was waiting for you guys in cal to do this post. I did not want to post ahead of you. I was sent six fruit from a friend to taste a couple newer ones I think. They were delicious we scored them and sent the results back. I trade budwood with a few cal growers maybe I can get with you Ethan. Here are a few of my pictures of the fruit. Thanks to everyone for this event and your pictures.