A friend of mine came back from the US making this same comment not long ago. She said the fruit over there is absolutely enormous, but relatively tasteless. Do you guys find that your fruit is really bland, or is it just something you are used to so you don't notice?

Actually I realise that if you have no point of comparison it may taste "normal" to you. For those who have eaten fruit in other countries, what do you find?

For some reason, this cracked me right up. LOL.

Primm,

I have noticed that grocery store fruit tastes much blander than farmers' market fruit, and also some varieties of fruit have a lot less flavor than others. For example, Red and Golden Delicious apples, I think have almost no flavor at all, whereas Fuji are really good (though most are marked that they're coming from New Zealand or Australia, now that I think about it.)

In fact, New Zealand and Australian apples have a really good reputation for being very flavorful - sweet, tart, juicy, and crisp (the perfect combo, I think). The Honey Crisp variety grown in Wisconsin and I believe (originally) Minnesota is amazing. However, it's also about two to three times the cost of other varieties of apple. Bananas, nectarines, peaches, plums and pears are almost always sold under-ripe, so they have no flavor if you eat them right away or put them in the fridge. You've got to store them at room temperature to allow them to ripen.. The "Gold" varieties of pineapple from Hawaii are excellent and more predictably sweet than the cheaper varieites of pineapple (which seem to be disappearing though). There's a "white" low acid pineapple variety called Kona Sugarloaf that is supposed to be absolutely amazing, but I hear that its extremely rare to find one outside of Hawaii.

I've done a lot of experimenting (I love fruit) and I would say that fruit in US grocery stores is pretty hit and miss. Some is excellent and some is pretty mediocre. However, farmers' market and farmers' co-op fruit is of much higher quality and consistency. In the midwest, late spring to late fall is farmers' market season, though warmer states like California, Florida and Texas I'm told have year-round farmers' market access.

I think the fruit that is sold at grocery stores is completely tasteless, with only a few exceptions. But the fruit I buy at my farmers' market is divine! But that is because the farmers only sell fruit that is in season and picked when it is ripe (rather than picked before it is ripe and "ripened" with ethylene gas)--sometimes the fruit may have even been just picked that morning. And the farmers always offer samples, so I know how the fruit tastes before I buy it. If it doesn't taste good, I don't buy it.

evilwoman--two or three large bananas would be 25% (or possibly more) of the total calories I eat in a day. I love fruit, but it is so high in calories that I really have to ration it or I'm not going to get enough other nutrients. Especially bananas, which are some of the highest calorie fruits.

Hey Barbara,
Yes I am aware its one of the highest calorie fruits, other than dried fruit I suppose.... I know we are all unique individuals, so what works for me banana-wise obviously may not work for someone else. When I am eating my bananas I will think of Barbara and say dang 1/2 a banana, that chicky is GOOD!

Its their sweetness that I love.... About 1.5 years ago I had to give up splenda and all artificial sweeteners and I quit them all cold turkey being they gave me horrible stomach pains. I was od-ing on the fake sugar, I had it with my oatmeal, was in my fiber one cereal, was in my yogurt, my diet soda, my hot chocolate, it was in everything I was eating.

Now my banana's are my sugar of choice and I do not miss the fake sugars one I-oda and best of all I am stomach pain free.

Regarding the fruit, yeah it is hit and miss most weeks at the grocery store. I still have a bushel of apples from my trees in my crisper, YUM! I just came home from a vacation out of the country for a few weeks and the bananas were so tiny, short and skinny ( I literally ate 6 daily, don't cringe barbara, they were teeny tiny!) and in my opinion they had no flavor compared to the bananas here in the usa! Also the melons and watermelon werent that great over there either, but the kiwi and pineapple rocked!

Thanks for that. Yep, I'm pretty fortunate living where I do, I guess. I'm in south-east Queensland, so sub-tropical climate. And just west over the range is more mediterranean, so they grow all the stone fruits and grapes. We have the hugest variety of fruits within about 250 km, and they sell them in all the fruit shops.

I don't buy supermarket fruit and veg either. The fruit shops are cheaper, tastier, and more convenient for me (just round the corner instead of in the next suburb). Plus they pack my stuff in cardboard cartons so I don't have bags rolling round in the back parcel shelf of my little convertible when I go shopping!

Me too! Too bad it doesn't work in coffee ...

I wish our farmer's market had apples, but they just don't grow well out here. I've been getting my apples at Costco, and yes, they're huge, but quite tasty. I do manage to get some good melons and some good veggies at the farmer's market--when I have the time to get there (which isn't as often as I'd like).

I like big fruit but have become the type who buys the smallest available. The size of fruit and the number of calories per serving of bigger versus smaller fruit is something I never thought of until I started using calorie king and saw the difference. I have figured out that if I eat the fruit whole like an apple or on orange it seems smaller than if I eat it cut up into sections. Strange right.