The fruit party was awesome and I was stuffed to the gill with very sweet fruit. I really like the white watermelon because it was so sweet and juicy on a hot day.
The Meli Kalima pineapples were also a sugar bomb as was the Spice Z Nectaplum. The Mallika mango was huge and perfectly ripened per my taste buds. It was very sweet and had some great acid balance. The Beverly was good but did not fully sweeten up so there was a stronger acid component which lacked some sweetness to brighten up the flavor profile.
The Sweet Tart was a bit under ripe and was pretty chalky and lacked it’s usually high sugar, high acid punch. Others at the party have their own taste preferences and I heard at least one person say that they preferred the Beverly.
There was so much fruit and other food there, it was getting silly. I saw multiple people rubbing their bellies and complaining about their full stomach and then when we cut up more fruit, they miraculously found some inner strength to take another bite or ten.
The Reed avocado that Brad cut up for people was super good and creamy, that would have also made an awesome smoothie or avocado ice cream.
The Kaimana were very good and I did prefer them over the two different batches of Brewsters at this tasting but the best tasting Brewsters from Leo’s old tree that made mostly chicken tongue fruit were better than these Kaimana.
Kaimana is large and sweet with a small seed but it lacks the floral Lychee/Rose scent and flavor. It does have some of that Lychee flavor but it is very toned down. On a scale of 1-10, Kaimana has a Lychee/Rose scent/flavor of about 3.
Brewsters can get large but usually have that giant seed except for certain clones like Leo’s. Brewsters have a very high lychee/Rose scent/flavor. I would give it about an 8-9 out of ten.
Perhaps a perfect bite would be to mix one Brewster with one Kaimana!
The Black Sapote was surprisingly good considering it was not in a smoothie and there was no sugar added. It had the texture of chocolate pudding and was very mildly sweet.
Many of the guests were super excited to try the Miracle Fruit that Mark brought. I saw them eating Lychees, Passionfruit, Limes, Calamansis and other acidic fruit after the miracle fruit and they were so surprised at how sweet everything became. I love watching people’s reactions after trying miracle fruit for the first time!
There was also a lot of Dragonfruit which were really good but we had to pace ourselves because there’s only so much fruit you can pack into one stomach.
Thanks again to Brad and his family for hosting the party and to all the friends and guests that were able to share their wonderful fruit, excellent company and exciting fruit stories.
In times like now, it’s wonderful to forget about what separates us and instead focus on what brings us together. Everyone at the fruit party shared the common interest of loving to grow fruit, love eating fruit or both. It was wonderful seeing people smiling and laughing with each other while we all stuffed our faces. It was also wonderful to see some younger fruit growers and young children wandering around the orchard and curiously looking around the fruit tasting tables trying to decide what they want to shove into their faces next. This is what dreams are made of and some of these children will surely grow up to be worthy fruit hunters.
Simon