The Treasure Coast Rare Fruit Club pulled off an amazing event for a large number of guests. Congrats to Joe and Vall who I know worked very hard on getting everything just right so everybody could get a chance to sample rare fruit. The selection was vast, everything was pre-cut in satisfying portions, and all of it was labelled so you could identify your favorites. One side of the room had display tables of uncut fruit like this, including the Prete mango:
On the other side a row of tables contained tray after tray of mangoes, jackfruit, pineapple, banana, soursop, wax jambu, starfruit, longan, even mango bread and more stuff that I can't remember. I stopped counting the mango varieties at around 20 because I couldn't keep track but many of them were lesser known types I had not tried. The best part is that all of the mangoes were correctly ripened and I felt like I was getting an accurate impression of the flavor. They must have peeled and pre-sliced hundreds of mangoes into nice big chunks. And then the jackfruit, oh the jackfruit. The jackfruit was correctly chosen and appropriately ripened. Lots of labor went into presenting mouthful-sized chunks of jackfruit without any latex, slime or funk. We ate our way through the line, sampling and chatting as we went. The last item in the spread was the mango bread which hit the spot!
The botanical garden lobby is a large air-conditioned room perfect for this kind of event. Lots of people loaded up a tray with fruit and then enjoyed it while strolling through the outdoor gardens. Of the many tasting events I have attended this year, the Treasure Coast Taste of the Tropics was very near the top, a great experience and of course, free admission. If you missed out, make plans to attend next year. The fruit club members took great pride and extra effort to produce an outstanding experience for everybody, even the most experienced tropical fruit enthusiast.
