An unripe Honey Kiss

One option for an inexpensive meet up or hangout place is Everglades Hostel - http://www.evergladeshostel.com/ - in the heart of tropical fruit country... very close to Robert is Here and Fruit & Spice park in Florida City, Miami-Dade. It's a rustic place with shady native landscaping and fruit trees and a hippie / backpacker vibe. Community kitchen.  Picnic tables, grills, hammocks, swimming pool with waterfall, treehouse, fire pit.  Camping is $18 (not recommended in summer, it's muggy), A/C dorm beds are $28 per night and private rooms and suites for more.  They are pretty laid back and accommodating towards informal groups just showing up and hanging out, cooking out, cutting up fruit, drinking beer, etc...  as long as the people are staying there as guests.

If you wanted to do a more formal production with workshops and ticket sales, etc,... I have seen them do weekend yoga workshops, raw food events, plant talks before... but it requires coordination or payment I think.

Look good...

Tell us how they taste and smell!

I can only comment on flavor, not tree or growth habits -

Maha Chanok is the king of all mangos in my book - a marvel of nature. 'Forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden' kinda level.  It has a complex and incredibly suave balance of sweet and tart flavors - but it has a subtle spice element (that some of us associate with 'cola syrup').  It's not like a heavy turpentine resinous taste - its subtle. Some reviewers don't mention or notice this taste when describing it.

Venus has a lovely flavor - really delicious -  but it also has the same subtle spice element found in Maha Chanok.

Honey Kiss has a mellow & sweet flavor. I don't find the flavor to be that "interesting" but it is very "good."  Honey Kiss might be my selection if I were trying to pick a mango to sell nationwide at Whole Foods - an ideal and agreeable flavor for the discerning Caucasian American fruit shopper. If your favorite mango is Edward, you might like Honey Kiss.

Kent can be pretty good late in the season.

Haven't had any this year.

ST Maui  - Mango Review

This meaty mango from Tropical Acres in WPB looks kind of like a Fruit Punch.  It has a complex, fruity-resinous flavor profile that I'd place in the Caribbean (e.g., Julie/Graham/Bombay) corner of the tasting table. When cut open, the inside appeared marbled and smelled a bit "tart."  Each time I took a bite, I noticed something different. The first taste was peach plus the sour twang of a pineapple. Next was pomegranate juice.  Then syrupy sweet berry flavors.  A distinctive resin flavor with the bite of allspice.  I regard this is an "excellent" tasting mango with very appealing flavors that complement each other well. I could imagine it ranking in the Top 3 or Top 5 at a good mango tasting.

Coca Cola volatiles include  eugenol, coumarin, linalool 1,8-cineole,  and others.

Some of these components are shared in some mango varieties.

I have had an interest for some time, in what components make one variety taste like it has coconut, peach,  lemon etc.    also what makes one variety more susceptible to fruit flies and another more resistant.

what has surprised me, is how much difference there is between mango varieties,  its amazing.

If anyone is interested in looking into this,  here is the best reference I have found online:  explains each of the components in mango, and what the aroma / flavor is:
http://ietd.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/2445/10/10_chapter3.pdf

Components of Maha and Nam Doc Mai,   sadly the lactones are not listed here,   which I suspect MC is high in.
http://www.ifrj.upm.edu.my/19%20%2804%29%202012/22%20IFRJ%2019%20%2804%29%202012%20Laohaprasit%20%28024%29.pdf

Tropicdude,

Thanks for the fascinating information! Scientific, biochemically based "mango reviews" - no wine tasting b.s., just good old fashioned Likens-Nickerson
Simultaneous distillation-extraction (LNSDE) and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) data

The ZINC-family and the Maha Chanok must both contain similar volatile compounds. And the Maha may have a different aroma compound in addition to the classics.

I also was fascinated to read in the second link Keow Savoy mango is eaten with with fish sauce.

I noticed that the very top of my mango - the area all around the stem, was especially concentrated with the spicy ("cola") flavor. I called it "the bottle cap."

The very bottom tip of the Maha Chanok I had was bitter and unpleasant.

Is this a characteristic of the fruits, or was that just a fluke of one particular mango?

Quote from: GrassFlats on June 29, 2015, 09:17:24 PM

Ate a couple of Coconut Creams yesterday.  HOLY MOLY!! What a great tasting mango!  Distinct coconut taste, very juicy!  Very impressed.  My top two as of now are Sweet Tart and Coconut Cream

I know, right.  You could put together a decent starting 5 with Zills lineup:

Sweet Tart
Coconut Cream
Fruit Punch
Pineapple Pleasure
Lemon Zest

As awesomely delicious as those mangos are, I would feel a bit disappointed if I'd have planted one of them in my sole mango spot instead of Maha Chanok. I feel the MC has just a slightly more complex, more "elegant" flavor... plus better looks and aroma.  I can't wait to share with friends and neighbors - next year hopefully.

Maha Chanok - Mango Review



Two years ago I bought a Maha Chanok tree from Excalibur Fruit Trees in Lake Worth, FL, and planted it. Yesterday I finally got to taste one. It's a beautiful fruit: phallic and curvy, yellow with the rosy blush of a chinook salmon, sparsely dotted with little black speckles ringed in hot neon pink. It has a pungent, intoxicating scent... like smelling a ripe Edward mango held by a sweaty man wearing cologne which mostly covers up his body odor.  When cut, the inside smelled "tart" and berry-like.

As for the flavor, it's very hard to describe. But l'll try:

There's a measured sweetness with a subacidic undertone like homemade cranberry sauce. The secondary layer of flavors is suave... sort of mellow like a Valencia Pride, smooth like a cantaloupe, and sunny like a tangelo. Some Nam Doc Mai-like honey taste. Classical mango flavors were present throughout and especially noticed near the thin seed. Underneath the skin is cola syrup -- subtle cinnamon-vanilla notes which give it a delicately spicy finish. The cola flavor was especially concentrated throughout the upper half inch of the mango, just below the stem .   No resin taste.

Eating the second half, which I let ripen for several hours more, the flesh was softer. There was intense sweetness and a rich, creamy classical mango flavor. The tartness and subtle flavors were less noticeable.

Because of its sexy looks & remarkable scent, the uniqueness of the flavor profile, and the overall taste quality... my first impression of Maha Chanok is it that of an "outstanding" top tier mango. It's probably the best mango I have ever tasted.

I'd like to thank Harry Hausman and Richard Wilson who championed this mango and inspired me to plant it. These guys did extensive research and made a killer selection. I can now survive and even look forward to these muggy South Florida summers, so as long as the Maha Chanok tree blooms in my backyard. If the fruit gets better as the tree matures, I will be even happier than I am now.   

Robert is Here is the name of a pricey but well stocked tropical fruit stand about 7 miles from Fruit and Spice park. Worth a stop.

Woah... the first fruit off my Maha Chanok tree was delicious     

Just shared some with Ray, the maintenance man at our office. I asked if he thought it was any good. His exact words in between bites were:

"Wow that's different... But Good... like Candy... Best I ever had."