Luc’s Mexican Garcinia vs Achachairu - Video comparison - Garcinia Showdown

[Mike T]

Sober words Oscar and that is true. Some prainiana have a really good flavour profile however even when a bit green. Bigger fruiting one that are more red orange seem to be better.

[Mike T]

Contrary to what I am told photos of me do exist. Peter Salleras a friend of over 25 years and a giant of the Australian tropical fruit realm took this pic of me after I raided his button mangosteen trees. I thought it was a good idea to relieve him of a few. The dashing one in the foreground is yours truly. Mike Prociv behind me has been a friend for over 30 years and has heavyweight knowledge of tropical fruit especially dragonfruit. We spent Wednesday morning inspecting Peter's impressive orchard, swapping lies and telling tales in good fun. Peter's cherapu are mighty fine fruit.


Last time I visited Peter he was road testing pruning equipment.

[fruitlovers]

Last time i saw Peter Salleras here in Hawaii he wanted to gift me his boots. But i didn't want to have to follow in his boot steps. Tell Peter to take another photo of you Mike, this time with your eyes open!

[Mike T]

I am not one to elbow others outa the way when a camera comes out and that is probably enough. Peter has big boots alright being a few inches taller than me  and I'm over 6 feet with quite a hoof on me. I am told I dont have the genetics for a fruit hand model as I make the fruit look smaller having a large paw.
A more considered appraisal of Garcina fruit and which are the best/most desirable may go a bit like this:
in first place is Russell Sweet or better large mangosteen types like mesta and the big borneos. The jury is out on Lukes but maybe a big jumbo fruit is right up there.
Big fruited prainiana  and macrophylla must be near the top also and I suspect Lindero from Ecuador could also be a star
The best sweet dulcis deserve a high rating also but standard dulcis are a bit sour.
I think there is a bunch of worthy americans that warrant honourable mentions like acachas, magnifilia, and a couple of species of madrono especially fuzzy skin types but these can vary in quality.

[Mike T]

What makes a showdown difficult is the variation within each species and variety adding to the subjectivity. While the pictured big mangosteens may not be Tenom Gardens elites they are just a large fruiting selection (big star flattened base) of the common mangosteen but Id like those along in a competition.


By contrast if you were to try this form of G.macrophylla which you can see in the handsome paw you would think it is a lousy fruit.G.dulcis is another  that ranges from being a nice fruit to something of extremely mediocre quality.

[fruitlovers]

What makes a showdown difficult is the variation within each species and variety adding to the subjectivity. While the pictured big mangosteens may not be Tenom Gardens elites they are just a large fruiting selection (big star flattened base) of the common mangosteen but Id like those along in a competition.


By contrast if you were to try this form of G.macrophylla which you can see in the handsome paw you would think it is a lousy fruit.G.dulcis is another  that ranges from being a nice fruit to something of extremely mediocre quality.

Well yes.  But that's the truth about most fruits: extreme variation in quality, and also lots of variation depending on where and how they were grown and if they were picked at peak ripeness.

[Dada]

Here some Garcinia macrophylla from Ecuador. The lines on the skin a bit different. So Garcinia magnifolia is coming after macrophylla in Mike's rating?

[Mike T]

Dada my point is that the variation in 'alleged'  G.macrophylla is so great that there are poorer ones that don't rate well such as those in the second pic. I am not the keeper of Garcinia fruit quality scorecards or ratings but yes good G.macrophylla outshines magnifolia. Different judges in a Garcinia pageant would no doubt award the tiara to different. I have no doubt the mythical big Rusty of which there is a tree in Puerto Rico would no doubt rank highly.
If we did a dirty dozen of the worst Garcinias to eat out of hand we may have some spirited debate.