I keep trying jujube since so many people here seem to love it but it always tastes like a slightly sweet sponge to me.
Great topic Mamuang.
I don’t like black raspberries. They just seem to have a slight hard boiled egg flavor to me.
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect part of our taste preferences are genetic, part environmental (what our parents fed us) and partly age.
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I dislike cantaloupe and watermelon. As a general rule dislike mushy apples and crunchy pears!! Just goes against how things should be!
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Yes. Mushy apples and crunchy pears are yucky for me, regardless of their flavor.
Strangely, I don’t mind the crunchy texture of Asian pears, even though the flavor is bland to me.
Likewise I don’t mind fried apple slices on the stove with a little brown sugar butter, cinnamon, even though the slices are pretty soft/mushy.
I can’t imagine what the difference is except for expectation. Once I cooked some raccoon for supper and my family didn’t eat much even though barbequed, it tastes like any other barbequed meat.
I think we associate food much deeper than taste. I bet a top shelf chef could make dog, or dog food, tasty to my liking, if I didn’t know what I was eating. But if they told me, I’d be repulsed.
I hope I’m not taking the thead off topic, but enjoy learning and speculating the “why”.
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That’s the “date” stage. I like them when they’re mostly brown but still crisp in texture.
I have seen that time and time again with food. It often goes well beyond the taste aspect for humans.
I was talking in terms of fresh fruit. I would eat my weight in fried apples or apple pie any day of the week if it was possible, and there were no down sides.
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I just wanna say : lots of people say that mangoes found in store can’t compare to fresh, locally grown ones…Well, mango is my favorite fruit and I’ve only had it from grocery stores. SO… Are you telling me they get BETTER? Lol… I have to travel the world!!!
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I had a huge mango tree in Africa and they were great they just didn’t compare to store-bought mangoes here in the U.S.
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Jessica,
Fear not. There are plenty of good imported mangoes in the US. I am sure in Canada, too. The Ataulfo mangoes, around my area is called Champagne mangoes, are around.
If you have any Asian market your area, you should check them out. Summer is the time when they are plenty. I also see them sold at supermarkets at a higher price.
@BobC Bob, you are right. Not all mangoes are created equal. I have eaten many, many mangoes. Some store bought mangoes are as good, depending on what varieties and what state of they ripeness when picked.
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And yet, local tree ripened Ataulfos are even better!
I’ve had them several times and they are good but the last time I bought them at Costco they were not good. Like many fruits quality can vary significantly.
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Richard,
I think we all agree that, of the same variety, tree- ripened fruit taste better than store bought. Realistically speaking, how many of us live in San Diego or Soth Florida ?
@danzeb, definitely, store bought fruit quality vary. I got wonderful pears from Wegman’s. So good that I went back to buy more. The second purchase did not come close to the first.
I’ll say it: apples. They’re boring.
I’m sure if I grew up on persimmons instead I’d be fascinated by apples, but as it is they’re just meh.
Admittedly, sometimes I go to tastings and have one right off the tree and am reminded that there’s a reason it’s our primary fruit…
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i see you live in san diego, if you could make room for just one tree, there is a way of getting several cultivars to bear fruits that will be dense and not spongy, and very sweet instead of slightly sweet.
and juicy, instead of dry.
tell me when you’re ready 
Pawpaw
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Pawpaw. I don’t dislike it, but their window of proper ripeness is narrow–in northern Illinois approximately on September 20 between 10:14 AM and 3:17 PM. Before that, too green, and after that just awful. An overripe banana can be used for making banana bread, but overripe pawpaw pulp, besides being in my opinion frankly nasty, is difficult to de-seed and is a big mess in the kitchen. The flavor of a pawpaw when you catch it at the right time is interesting–sweet and rich, but after a few pieces it is too much of a good thing. That said, I have had paw paw ice cream prepared at the U. of Kentucky. I must admit it was superb, but they had paid help to prepare the pulp and clean up afterwards. I have also had pawpaw wine on two occasions, as good as the best chilled Rhine or Moselle, but not at all practical at home. It is also fun to give a piece to someone for the first time. This spring I removed the two mature trees I’d had on my half-acre suburban home lot since 1986. Handsome trees I will admit, but all that mostly unusable fruit, and of late all of those suckers coming up many feet away from the mother trees made pawpaws a big negative. Thank you. Had to get this off my chest.
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I never met a fruit I didn’t love. Then I met apricots.
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You must not have had a good one. Anyone that likes everything else would love good apricots. Poor apricots can be tasteless or astringent.
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I trust your judgement enough to give them another try. My first experience was fresh apricots on a cheesecake. Everyone else thought they were delicious but I got an intense chemical taste and had to make an exit to spit it out. I tried canned ones another time and got the same effect. Admittedly, not the ideal sources to try them at their best. I’m not picky about foods generally (and don’t even mind a bit of astringency in my persimmons), so I figured it must be one of those quirky individual taste things. I’m one of the folks for whom cilantro tastes like soap. If I find out I’ve been avoiding them for 25 years without reason I’ll have some catching up to do!
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I never had that with apricots, this might be an individual genetic thing that you have. I’m very picky about apricots, I love good ones and very much dislike mediocre ones. Terrible apricots are very common in trade, even at farmers markets, they are either tasteless (taste like a bland potato) or too acidic (underripe), but not the chemical taste you mentioned.
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