I need some help identifying a Persimmon that I had years ago, but I don’t have any pictures so I’ll have to describe it. It’s without a doubt the best fruit I’ve ever had, easily the best Persimmon.
First, the backdrop. When I was a student at Clemson University I had the opportunity to try some fruits from their experimental fruit farm. The persimmons weren’t doing well at all; they had a handful of Asian varieties and a handful of American ones. The Asian ones were all many years old but shorter than me, scraggly, diseased and had maybe a dozen fruits, except ONE. One of them was about 20 feet tall, 15 feet broad, totally full of branches and leaves and fruits, it looked like a Christmas tree it was so full and robust. It was LOADED with fruits, hundreds definitely, maybe a thousand. They were ripe very early too, September, no frost for at least another month.
The fruit’s description: it was a rather large fruit, at least the size of a good fuyu. It was squat and flat, kind of like a fuyu but seemingly flatter, like it would sit flat on a table like a plate. It was roundish but had 4 distinct sides, like a square. There were NO ribs whatsoever; totally smooth and very full sides. The skin was hardly noticeable, not like a tomato skin that seems plastic, but rather almost non-existent (as opposed to the other Asian ones there wbich had skin that would get caught in your teeth or that you simply wouldn’t eat because it was tough). The skin was just different… The texture was perfect, pudding-like yet quite gummy/chewy. The color was super dark red-orange when ripe, and the whole ripe fruit was like a translucent red/orange orb in the sunlight; you could almost see through it because of its unique skin. The flavor was amazing, very sweet yet complex with hints of spice; there were hints of astringency in under-ripe/firmer ones and harder ones were quite astringent. Every fruit had seeds; some only 1 or 2 but most had 3-5 seeds.
This is without a doubt the best all around fruit I’ve ever had. The White Madeira fig is close, and some pawpaw varieties stand out in my mind, and of course a few nectarines, but this Persimmon is what I’d take home if you only gave me one fruit tree. I could identify it from some good pictures. Jiro or Maekawa Jiro look pretty close but I’ve never tasted them and I can’t tell from Google pics.
