I've eaten Soursop, but have very little other experience with Annonas. I have been eager to taste more and Lara Farms recently listed Custard Apples for sale on their website. I ordered a box of the San Pablo variety, which came to a total of $114.75 shipped. Four fruit arrived the next day, all weighing over a pound. That works out to just under 30 bucks a fruit. One of the reasons I got involved with fruit trees was to save money on food, and that's working out great so far.
A San Pablo Custard Apple resembles a massive heart-shaped strawberry, complete with indentations on the surface. It looks delicious with all the colors of Valentine's Day. The reddish-purple skin covers flesh with swirls of pink and crème.
To eat, wait until the fruit turns soft and squishy, cut in half, and scoop with a spoon. The flesh is full of small seeds, like a watermelon, except each seed is coated in a slimy jacket making them harder to eat around. I stopped counting after 30 seeds. Each bite contains seeds so you won't be able to get a big mouthful of just fruit. This is not the kind of fruit you share on a first date, unless you met at the rare fruit council plant sale. In that case, sharing a custard apple would be a true test of intimacy, staring into each other's eyes as you chew like camels around the seeds and spit them out so you can plant a seedling tree together. True romance.
Close to the skin, the texture is gritty and grainy like an Asian pear. The San Pablo contains more stone cells than any Sapodilla I have tried. Near the center the fruit becomes soft and slimy. I wish I could describe it as creamy or custard-like but it reminds me more of mucus. Although that improves with refrigeration, the grainy and limp texture of this custard apple is a major drawback, and maybe the reason it's not more widely known.
The price, rarity, and vivid colors raised my expectations for taste. The fruit has strong sweetness, about 7/10 on the sugar scale with some tart balance from the flavor. I taste two main flavors swirled together. The base layer is strongly reminiscent of Asian Pear and mild banana. On top of that a ribbon of mixed berries weaves in and out. I taste tangy strawberry, raspberry, and boysenberry with pleasant sweet and sour notes. Ever tried a bag of frozen mixed berries after they thaw? That's what I'm tasting.
Some have described the flavor of San Pablo custard apple as raspberry yogurt. While that's close, I just don't taste much dairy, certainly not the sour tang you get in yogurt. The raspberry yogurt description at least approximates two distinct flavors that are not completely mixed.
While eating San Pablo Custard Apple for the first time proved exciting, ultimately I'm left disappointed. I struggled to get past the texture and the seeds. The fruit tastes very good, but not great. I can see it as an occasional treat, but not the sort of thing you would cut open in the bleachers at a little league game to enjoy with a bag of Doritos and a root beer. It's worth trying if you can find one for free or cheap, but at 30 bucks a pop, save your money. If you are growing fruit, and the goal is to make money, then this might be a profitable fruit to grow given the prices charged by mail order sellers.
