For $87.18 the 2025 Mango Festival VIP package included some perks. Was it worth the money over the standard $20 entry ticket to get the extra stuff?
- Entry one hour early
- Festival t-shirt
- "Guided tasting" of 10 mango varieties
The
early entry at 9am was crucial. I went in with a list of mangoes I wanted to try. Almost every vendor had racks of mangoes up on the tables and I found some crazy stuff including a Pettigrew, Alempur Baneshan and Ambrosia. The hall was almost empty for this first VIP hour and you could chat with vendors while taking time to select fruit from fully stocked bins. I bought about 50 mangoes from at least 10 different sellers. After 10am when doors opened for everyone, the aisles were swamped and huge lines formed to buy fruit which quickly became scarce. Elbows sharpened as guests competed for the few remaining Lemon Zest. Soon after the vendors put their trees up on the tables and only the most unfancied mangoes remained unbought.
The included
festival t-shirt is 100% cotton with an eye-catching design - about as nice as you could expect for such an item. The shirt adds some value to the package, especially if you're the sort of person who buys the concert t-shirt when you go see Pink Floyd play
The Wall.
The
guided tasting turned out to be a bloody disaster - quite literally. Running a tasting presents logistical challenges, but for the money charged, it has to be better. The tasting rooms were tightly packed with 100+ tasters and the volunteer staff who cut and served the mangoes. The VIP Guests sat at long tables of 8 tasters with one volunteer per table. Understandably, many people wheeled in pushcarts of mangoes and trees, blocking movement. In Room A, Paul Nisson of "Fruitful Trees" youtube notoriety hosted and "guided" our tasting. Paul spoke into a microphone and PA system in the small room, almost shouting his way through familiar info which you better fact-check. He promoted his youtube channel, his lecture later that day and several other unrelated items during the tasting. I wished it had been a video so I could hit the mute button and just read the closed captions. As the event progressed, his overpowering volume and shouting became more objectionable.
Mangoes tasted included Edward, Angie, Sweet Tart, Maha Chanok, Lemon Meringue, Fruit Cocktail, Orange Sherbet, Coconut Cream and several other well-known varieties for a total of 11 mangoes. Each table had only one of each mango variety to be split 8 ways. It simply wasn't enough fruit, especially for small mangoes like Lemon Meringue. Can you form an impression on one bite? The volunteers bravely tried to cut the fruit and distribute the pieces after each mango was introduced over the mic. Volunteers were not told the serving order so they had to indentify, cut and serve the mangoes on the fly which caused confusion. The mangoes were served with skin on at room temperate on paper plates with a single napkin per guest. 11 mangoes split 8 ways works out to less than 1 and a half mangoes per person.
Many mangoes were overripe or poorly stored. Our Sweet Tart was the worst example I've experienced with an awful carrot flavor - the table nodded in agreement and laughter when I said it tasted of carrot. The Lemon Meringue was perfectly ripe and the best one I ever tasted. Our table lagged behind the others as the volunteer assigned to cut our mangoes struggled to keep up. He was working hard but obviously uncomfortable handling the knife. We were often still tasting a mango while Paul was plowing forward with his introduction of the next fruit over the public address system. As we tried to discuss our impressions and compare tasting notes, we were rudely shushed by another volunteer. Later she actually told me to shut up and be quiet as I discussed a mango we were eating with my friend across the table. Here I am, a paying VIP guest being treated like an unruly child.
Guests sitting next to our volunteer had politely suggested that he cut the mangoes on the cutting board, rather than holding them up in the air in his hand. As he cut the Orange Sherbet, sure enough, the knife slipped in his wet hands and he cut himself badly enough to jump up and dash out of the room for medical assistance. He was a polite young man and I hope it's not a bad cut. We struggled to get the attention of Paul and another volunteer. Paul came to our table and attempted to resolve the issue by picking up the bloody knife and cutting the bloody mango on the bloody cutting board as if he was going to hand it out to us to eat. We finally convinced him to discard the knife, cutting board and mango. Then Paul went back to the podium to introduce the next mango while we recruited another volunteer to cut for our table. After some time, another Orange Sherbet appeared for us to sample. By that point, any sense of "guidance" in terms of flavor or tasting was gone. We were asked to raise our hands if we liked or didn't like a certain mango with no exploration of the flavor, taste or texture. As a final complaint, I had hoped for some more exotic varieties, at least one or two of the 11 choices should have been exotic / new / rarely eaten (P-22, Apricot, Tymour, etc).
Folks who got the VIP pass for early admission and skipped the tasting probably came out ahead. They had extra time to shop for the rare mangoes we wished we were trying in the not very pleasant tasting room. Next year I will skip the tasting - more effort will be required to create an appropriate environment and better guest experience, and I'm not convinced it's practical to make that effort. It would require:
- More napkins
- Enough fruit to taste a decent-sized piece
- Better guidance through the tasting, focus on flavor instead of "fun facts"
- Let the tables talk, make friends, and share the experience
- Bottled water
- Mix in some exotic mangoes that few have tasted
- Turn off the PA
Xain's mango party last week provided a far superior tasting experience. For five bucks which included a free barbecue dinner and some free mangoes.
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