Creme Brulee Mango

[Oolie]

I omitted the diacritics to make it easier to turn up in a search.

I haven't heard much about this mango this year, but it was getting rave reviews last year. Can anyone comment on the flavor of the aforementioned mango this year?

I grafted one up based on online reviews, and it is pushing. It will be a few years before I am actually able to comment on its taste unless I get to try it before I can fruit it myself.

I'm very interested in growing a mango with a dense creamy texture(starchy) like p-22 but with an Indian spice character.

Creme Brulee seems to be the only mango I have read about that fits the bill.
Unless anyone has experience with a more qualified mango.

[Phoenix From The Ashes]

Hi,

  What became of your Crème Brûlée mango? I ask, because I planted one in my yard today and I have many questions. The first question being, what’s your experience with the fruit? Does it ripe evenly or is it prone to soft nose? What’s this tree’s growth rate? Susceptibility to Anthracnose and Black Spot? I can’t find much information on the cultivar. I’m reaching out to a 4 year old post because I’m desperate for information. Supposedly, this is a superb mango with Indian spiciness.

TIA,

Bryan

[Oolie]

I'm eager to try one this year, my plant was devoured by gophers, so I'm going to have to replant it.

[Squam256]

We have 3 Crème Brûlée trees.

The largest is a topwork and has been fruiting for a while.

Two of them are grafted to experimental dwarfing rootstock that has worked “too well”. One of the 2 is an an unhealthy runt that I really should remove. The other has done better and has fruited a couple times.

The topwork has been a healthy low-to-moderate vigor tree but isn’t in the best position for growth. It had previously been an Eldon tree, but when bacterial black spot proved to be too much of a problem for it, I topworked it into Creme Brûlée around 2016. Some of The neighboring trees were vigorous growers (a Cac and an ST Maui)  and there’s also a shade house near to its south.

It flowers pretty easily here. Like some of the other Edward progeny it can have issues with producing disproportionate male flowers but it always sets some fruit. The fruit stay green until mature and then turn dull yellow when they ripen here. In interior areas I imagine they would probably stay green most of the time. It doesn’t get bacterial spot at all, but I could see anthracnose being a problem if conditions are humid enough. It’s flowering now so maybe after it’s done setting it’s crop I can remember to take a picture.

As far as ripening is concerned, we had some issues the first couple crops with softnose/uneven ripening which made me reluctant to sell the fruit to people, but that seems to have gone away the last several years and we’ve sold some of the fruit in recent years with strong positive reports. Probably just needs to be harvested mature green.

Back When I collected the budwood I remember Gary Zill telling me that the original tree had only fruited like 2 times in 14 years or something . But I think It may have fruited more frequently since that time so they finally produced some trees for the public.

The trees have been available long enough that I would have expected some reports from consumers by now, but this is true of some of the other Zill varieties that you hear almost nothing about from backyarders/small growers.

It would be nice to see some feedback because I regard Creme Brûlée as one of the finest flavored members of the Indian/West Indian group. Perhaps even the best of it.

[skhan]

How do you think it compares to something like White Pirie?
For the smaller Indian/west indian flavored mango White Pirie was probably my favorite (haven't tried Creme Brulee)

[Oolie]

Wow, Thank you for the followup Alex.
I'm eager to regraft it, but with moderate-low vigor, and high propensity to flower, it should definitely be on an established rootstock for So-Cal. I think I have at least one more that's hanging on through the gopher onslaught, looks like it may be grafting size later this year or next year if it lives that long.

[Squam256]

How do you think it compares to something like White Pirie?
For the smaller Indian/west indian flavored mango White Pirie was probably my favorite (haven't tried Creme Brulee)

Creme Brûlée is distinctive from White Piri, which is itself superb. White Piri, similar to Imam Passand, Jehangir and Ice Cream has an Anise  component to its flavor that either isn’t present or isn’t as strong in the other Bombay/Jakarta descendants. I almost feel we need a sub-group for these like we did for classic mangos with the classic-acidic subgroup.

A closer comparison for Creme Brulee might be something like Phoenix, Giselle, one of those types I suppose. Another that comes to mind that could be similar is Mahmoud Vikarabad. I should probably keep some of them this year to give a more proper description and maybe do some direct comparisons.

[skhan]

How do you think it compares to something like White Pirie?
For the smaller Indian/west indian flavored mango White Pirie was probably my favorite (haven't tried Creme Brulee)

Creme Brûlée is distinctive from White Piri, which is itself superb. White Piri, similar to Imam Passand, Jehangir and Ice Cream has an Anise  component to its flavor that either isn’t present or isn’t as strong in the other Bombay/Jakarta descendants. I almost feel we need a sub-group for these like we did for classic mangos with the classic-acidic subgroup.

A closer comparison for Creme Brulee might be something like Phoenix, Giselle, one of those types I suppose. Another that comes to mind that could be similar is Mahmoud Vikarabad. I should probably keep some of them this year to give a more proper description and maybe do some direct comparisons.

Thanks for the response Alex

This wasn't my top flavor class so I never really paid close attention to distinguish the Indian/west indian sub group.
I have mapulehu, buxton spice, phoenix, little gem, edgar and white pirie, So I'll try to see if I can recognize the difference.
I'll likely come by over the summer a few times to taste some of the random ones I can't find nearby by.

[Squam256]

Ate one of these today. Flavor was incredible. Just indescribably awesome.

Measured the Brix and it was about 26.

Some pics of the developing summer crop on the topworked tree:

[Orkine]

Nice to hear.

Do you think it has benefited from the lack of rain for the last several weeks? (although that has changed this week)

How have other mango that you have tasted so far this season compared to par for the variety in the past?

[Squam256]

Nice to hear.

Do you think it has benefited from the lack of rain for the last several weeks? (although that has changed this week)

How have other mango that you have tasted so far this season compared to par for the variety in the past?

The dry weather would have been good for it but the rain while the fruit was maturing would have had a deleterious impact on the fruit’s quality. As far as I can tell though there was no noticeable effect from the rain.

 I didn’t let it tree ripen though, harvested it while fully firm with just the smallest hint of yellow color break. When Creme Brûlée tree-ripens it’s more likely to get uneven ripening. This o e was perfect.

Everything’s been pretty good so far. Prior to this Creme Brûlée the best fruit so far this year has been Ugly Betty. But the dwarf Hawaiian, Rosigold, Edward and early Carries have all been on point as well, and some early Pivas I’ve been eating are tasting above average for that variety.