Best Fruit Poll.

sadly not

this list is totally incomplete without durian

wow i'm kinda shocked that my honest answer is banana. i used to hate bananas until i started getting the organic ones. now i eat multiple bananas every day and never get sick of them.

a banana in a smoothie is essential imho. it's a killer flavor in all kinds of contexts. it's extremely easy and pleasing to eat. sold almost everywhere. can't stress enough how crucial it is to get organic ones though. whatever treatment they apply to the regular ones turns them completely evil.

I swear we've already had a fruit poll but I can't find it so maybe it doesn't exist after all.

Unanswerable. I've pondered the mysteries of at least 20 of these in regard to drink making, including the ones I'm allergic to. My personal favorites are prob coconut and passionfruit, but lime and watermelon are what I've worked with most. JCLC, come to my town sometime and I will make you several watermelon drinks, boozy or NA as you prefer.

There’s honestly too much to love here. My favourite sub-category of fruits is “fruits you have to fiddle with a little bit”; Lychees get a big shout out in that regard. Great fruit for fidget-enthusiasts

Other great category is “fruits that transport you back to your childhood”. Big shout out to the council mulberry tree out the back of my childhood home. You made spring a real event

nectarine for nostalgia reasons. my Nan used to grow them - i recently found a variety that tasted just like hers & it sent me to the moon with joy it was so good

plus they used to be my favorite stewed fruit hands down

xxp
FRUITS OF SUMMER

Strawberries the most overrated fruit. It’s not that they’re bad, but compared to all the other berries? They’ve got nothing going for them besides the previously mentioned ‘fidget factor’

i think one mitigating factor for many of these is like supermarket vs. fresh from the garden. afaict supermarket strawberries are barely edible. fresh from the garden they're fuckin unreal imo. tomatoes the same though it's easier to get decent tomatoes from the supermarket than it used to be.

nah, a sublime strawb is as good as fruit gets imho

xpost

This is true. I do remember strawberries tasting far better than they currently do. Even the best strawberry doesn’t top that charts, but I’ll take back my “worst of the berries” claim

I always want Star fruit to be better than it is. It’s a beautiful looking fruit.

not much of a fan of grapes in general, but i have always LOVED Concord Grapes

i have tasted dragonfruit but have no recollection of taste

I'd pick passionfruit (with chocolate) as a favorite flavor combo if this was the thread for that

grapes are probably the most reliably good-tasting fruit to get (along with apples) when you're in a grocery store in a small town with no human-food farms and a single shit food distribution network for everything and everyone.

Mulberries are incredible but since they travel very badly they’re almost never in shops. There’s a tree nearby in one of the Inns of Court that gave me about 500g, enough to make one big jar of jam, plus a few fresh berries for me, straight from the tree. Magnificent.

Also WTF in this case means Where’s The Figs?

they just seem fructose-y to me with no real discernable flavor profile

xp

Love fruit

Voted PEACH as a good peach on a sunny day is a very simple & accessible path to sublime vibes, it seems like the fruitiest of all fruits to me, actually perfect

although timing is everything, peaches are only good for a short time of year and then each individual fruit has an ideal ripeness time, takes practice to judge this journey from supermarket to fruit bowl to consumption, you have to work at it

only other I seriously considered was KIWIFRUIT, there have been gold kiwifruit round here recently that are absolutely mindblowing

Was gonna say… absolutely nothing in this world compares to a ripe peach (from one of the southern US states).

Also the secret ingredient in a delicious sangría.

xp Starfruit are so bland.

starfruit and dragon fruit are both all style no substance (though both can work in a fruit salad if used sparingly)

“Strawberries overrated” this is true of store bought berries but tiny wild ones are amazing

Voted peach over nectarine bc haven't had a terrific cherry in a couple years

i am coming out of my self-imposed exile for this post: i must give all praise to the paw-paw, truly the one good falling fruit and one of the most amazing things a person can ever taste— like a banana custard inside a green-brown shell. they’re so incredible that we have secret spots where we harvest them. if you are ever on in the mid-Atlantic during their brief season, seek them out.

see you all again in a week, go paw paw

I think in some ways the Meyer lemon is my favorite fruit. It is a cross between a citron and a tangerine. It is slightly sweeter than a lemon, has a thinner skin, rounder shape, and a slightly spicy orangey flavor.

According to wikipedia: “The Meyer lemon is commonly grown in China in garden pots as an ornamental tree. It became popular as a food item in the United States after being rediscovered by chefs such as Alice Waters at Chez Panisse during the rise of California cuisine starting in the 1970s.”

It is seen in gardens throughout California, and thrives even in foggy San Francisco. I have several friends with Meyer lemon trees in their yards.

Meyer lemons are really great in cooking, especially in braised dishes and with any kind of fish. My main interest in them began when I started cooking Moroccan tagines.

Since then I’ve been obsessed with Meyer lemons preserved in salt and lemon juice. The process of making jars of them is ridiculously easy, they last forever, and the salted lemons take on an even spicier character over time. My favorite recipe using them is Zuni’s pasta with preserved tuna, preserved lemons and pine nuts.

This year I tried making Meyer lemon marmalade, which is also great

since it feels like we're just choosing fruits to eat though, I'm going with raspberries. My father grew them on our property in upstate NY when I was a kid. We had them in some form or other for dessert pretty much every day in the summer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VEeaU-KLKs

In my early childhood we had figs and mulberries (red & white both) growing in the yard! glaring omissions both. fresh figs and mulberries are spiritual nourishment for me, an anchor to my past and a source of strength.

members of my extended family planted cuttings of that fig tree in london and long island, they grow despite the colder climate!

I didn't leave out mulberries! Sorry tho fig lovers

so you didn't! my bad.

i think "choosing fruits to eat" is a nice way of thinking about this, though I'm most inclined towards JCLC's view that watermelon is king, and "amazing in salads" is a big part of that... with, yeah, hon mention for short season peaches. wild strawberries a contender, if the the ones you normally get from the supermarket are a deal breaker. and where's the love for concord grapes?

going with the "technical fruits" like tomatoes and chilies = lame imo

I have a lot of love for concord grapes, we have two vines that are at least 30 years old and we steam juice them every year, it's the season right now and we just finished.

but lime, lime makes everything better. watermelon? throw some lime and salt on that. browning apple slices? just a bit of lime. it's the glue of the fruit world, bringing tastes together since time immemorial. plus, margaritas.

for absolute ripe perfection, nectarines just edge out peaches imho, but I've already voted

lime juice as an ingredient is essential, true. i even use whole dried limes in my favorite herb stew. "choosing fruits to eat" where they fall short

fair

voted mango because when i saw the poll i was eating dried mango. it's so good you can even have it dried

^^great criteria for good fruits

Big fan of dried bananas

bananas that are just beginning to get ripe, that have a partially green peel and are firm are the best bananas imo. once they start getting brown spots I'm not interested

Strawberries locally grown and picked are incredible, as are home-grown tomatoes and same-day fresh picked corn. That's like a holy trinity of amazing farm produce.

i grow my own strawberries and they cannot even compare to the driscoll's garbage in US stores.

dried mango is so fucking good. sorry for swearing.

I think I like oranges and watermelons best, taste-wise - but find myself eating bananas most because they aren’t messy and come in their own little jackets.

Also where’s the dragonfruit?!

honestly i love all of you and i'm trying to give up aggro for lent but "durian" is some extremist "i prefered their first album" bullshit and pack it in with that

i mean there's a lot of other ridiculous fronting on here but let's start there

Lemon for me. Don’t eat them straight up anymore after they were ruining my teeth. But still use lemon in all sorts of salads, dips, seafood, etc.

Wait, what?!

I live in New Zealand and have a huge feijoa tree in the front yard. It produces around 5000 fruit per year, although some are tiny.

Not actually a huge fan, the seeds get stuck in my teeth, but giving them away around the neighbourhood is a nice way to meet neighbours.

huge feijoa fan here, i also got mine at the Sacramento Farmers Market when i lived in the valley

new contender just dropped, where has this been all my life?!?! I am in love.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamansi

Oh, I have to small trees in my (London, UK) garden! They are good in gins.

*two

my sister sent me a jar of apricot/calamansis jam that is just unbelievably delicious, I want MOAR

No persimmon in this poll, no credibility

I’ve yet to have a persimmon experience that exceeded meh

helloooo donut peaches, omg where have you been all my life?!?!

xp Yes persimmons don't pass many pleasurability tests for me, except for maybe as a persimmon loaf

Also, I love the idea of donut peaches but they seem like kind of a gimmick to me and I don't think they have much flavor. It's like Fuji apples for me. Maybe I don't understand the subtlety of the flavor/texture or maybe haven't let them get ripe enough. That said, I will gladly eat them

I love the old fashioned juicy Georgia peaches with the fuzz, but they have been mostly hybridized away. I mentioned this before, but have you all noticed that today's peach fruit doesn't cling to the pit like it used to? And they've gotten rid of the juiciness, the fuzz and also most of the flavor? I guess that is what people prefer now, but peaches are demoted in my opinion way down the list from being a favorite fruit

it's nectarine season!! love them so much

Love the idea that Americans encountered flat peaches and thought: this fruits looks like a donut, yep, good name, will sell.

I guess that is what people prefer now,

I highly doubt it. My guess is that taste is down the list on traits they are hybridizing for behind yield, resistance to disease, and resistance to bruising.

How the hell with all these options did 7 people still vote banana?

Hollywood Squares: You're the world's most popular fruit.. what are you?
Paul Lynde: Humbled

(the answer was banana)