ID Mango Variety

[johnb51]

What mango variety is this? Large, fiberless, beautiful fruit. The flesh is very orange near the seed, the rest yellow. The flavor is mild, has some acidity, reminds me of raisins (sort of metallic, too) with resin near the skin.  "K" only means it came from Ken's tree--a tall tree, seems vigorous, but not horizontally spreading.  Of course, it could be a seedling, like so many mature trees around here seem to be.

[johnb51]

OK, I got it, I think.  After eating one that was perfectly ripened, I'm 80-90% certain that these are Kent mangoes.  So it looks like I got the K right, after all!  It's just that it's been so long since I've eaten any Kent mangoes (over 30 years), and this is the first time eating any grown here in their home state.  I intend to ask Ken (neighbor) if his mangoes are Kent.  It should have been the first thing to do, right?  Sometimes I do things backwards.  How about you?    Also, I used to have a Providence tree, Providence is the offspring of Kent, and the flavor was VERY similar, with Providence having more of an acidic kick.  30 years ago I thought Kent was the pinnacle of mango flavor, but my taste buds have moved on thanks to all the other varieties I've had the good fortune to taste, adding more to the list every year.  God bless South Florida.  God bless Burma, Thailand, and India.  God bless Gary Zill.  By the way, these are damn good mangoes.  Not a thing wrong with them, but about 7.5 on the mango flavor scale. 

[Galatians522]

OK, I got it, I think.  After eating one that was perfectly ripened, I'm 80-90% certain that these are Kent mangoes.  So it looks like I got the K right, after all!  It's just that it's been so long since I've eaten any Kent mangoes (over 30 years), and this is the first time eating any grown here in their home state.  I intend to ask Ken (neighbor) if his mangoes are Kent.  It should have been the first thing to do, right?  Sometimes I do things backwards.  How about you?    Also, I used to have a Providence tree, Providence is the offspring of Kent, and the flavor was VERY similar, with Providence have more of an acidic kick.  30 years ago I thought Kent was the pinnacle of mango flavor, but my taste buds have moved on thanks to all the other varieties I've had the good fortune to taste, adding more to the list every year.  God bless South Florida.  God bless Burma, Thailand, and India.  God bless Gary Zill.  By the way, these are damn good mangoes.  Not a thing wrong with them, but about 7.5 on the mango flavor scale. 

That was my thought when I saw them, but I am no expert. Kent should have some fiber, a bit more than Valencia Pride, but not an objectionable amount. I have also come to rely more on my taste and smell when I dentifying varieties. Especially since things like color are pretty variable in a limited sample. If a mango was entirely in shade, for example, it may never get a red blush that we associate with a particular variety.

[JakeFruit]

There's a big old Kent that drops its fruit into a retention ditch, I start stalking the ditch this time of year. I'm usually 2nd or 3rd in line behind the raccoons & squirrels, but the fruits are very large (exact same size, shape and color as your picture), even 1/4 of the fruit is worth the hassle. It starts dropping what look like perfect-sized fruit in late May, but they are never any good until late July. The tree will sometimes hold fruit until October. The flavor won't blow your mind with its complexity, but eating a delicious local mango in October is amazing in itself. Not much fiber, that I recall, but it gets pretty bad jelly-seed.

[johnb51]

Yes, you guys are right.  A little fiber, especially near the seed, but no jelly-seed from this particular tree.

[johnb51]

You're gonna love this.  I finally talked to the owner of the tree, whose name is Ken.  The tree is a seedling after all.  My mind is blown.  And another neighbor two doors from him has a seedling tree that came from the same source, also growing in our community "on the way to the pool."  So two new varieties that are radically different from one another in flavor and appearance and also from their mother, which is probably a seedling as well.  The two are actually superior to the mother in flavor but not in texture (fiberlessness).  Adventures in Mango Land!  (Thus concludes a dumb story to anyone except a mango lover.)

[Galatians522]

Ha! Ha! That is the difficulty in identifying mangos. So many have been planted from seed.

[johnb51]

The take-away for me is just how good random seedling mangoes can be.  If there's a more amazing fruit, I don't know what it is.