Strawberries are soo unpredictable.
Last week, I picked up a small box of strawberries and they were delicious.
So I went back couple days later and they had large boxes on sale so I bought one and those were horribly tasteless.

So after recovering from those :P I bought another small box today and they are amazing...

To reiterate...strawberries are so frustrating!

I totally agree!!! I wish I could get them locally. My mom brought a flat back from Cali, picked fresh from the field... I want more of those!

when they are cheap enough ill take the gamble

ohh i wish raspberries went cheap lol

I grow my own strawberries ... and sometimes they are unpredictable also.
Mostly they are great .... fresh off the vine..

I feel your pain. I was about 7 or 8 when I tasted my first strawberries. We were in NY and I had specifically requested the strawberries when I saw them in supermarket. I remember being very excited about the contents of the little green box and I was so disappointed that, instead of the juicy sweetness that I had read about in various stories, I tasted acid strawberry after acid strawberry
I think my aunt tried to console me and suggested that we could buy some more for me to try. I passed.
My relationship with strawberries has improved but as you've said they can be unpredictable (and where I am a little expensive). I tend to buy frozen ones for smoothies.

I feel this way about most fruit. I hate it when I buy apples, get them home and they are floury. Or a melon looks and smells ripe then cut it open and it's yuck.

Same with pineapple. So frustrating!

But I love my fruit so I just put up with it

I agree! If I knew I would get the same wonderful flavor each time I'd buy lots more. My fav is peaches. But, it's more common than not that I end up with mealy, pastey peaches .

When they taste right I just love strawberries. I love using both them and a banana in my protein shake. Yum

My mom is good at picking out tasty ones...I need to find out her secret.

I agree once I bought this epically amazing water melon then next one I bought...sucked...all fruit is unpredicatable except for banana's lol.

Yep, all fruit is a gamble. it all depends on how much rain, temperature, etc and since batches are coming from ALL OVER, you can't even predict day to day in a grocery store what you will find. Local/same farm is better, but even that can vary week to week depending on the above conditions I mentioned.

I find local strawberries (grown/harvested in my state) to taste sweeter than the ones that come from other states. I think it's part of when they are picked -- if they have to travel state lines, they are picked when they are still green (and acid) rather than when they are local, they can wait for them to be more ripe (and sweeter).

I always check where they come from and adjust my expectations accordingly.

I learned a little trick with strawberries- smell the package.
If they have a good strawberry smell, then they are probably good.
If there is hardly any smell, then they are probably tasteless.

The only way you are going to get a consistent fruit or vegetable experience is ... wait for it ...

If they're subject to industrialized production, processing and quality control. That's what creates uniformity of product.

As for me, I'll deal with the roulette of strawberry buying.

I agree about smelling them. If they just smell ... well, cold ... they're usually not as good.

If I wait till they're available locally, they're even better. But that means patience and going without them for much of the year.

I am lucky to live where strawberries are grown locally. They're always good.

I also learned how to pick the perfect pineapple. Smell the bottom and press around. It should have some give but not be mushy. Try to pluck a leaf from the middle of the stem. If it comes out easily and the bottom is right, you're good to go. Watched a youtube video on this and have never picked a bad one since.

The locally grown ones are the best but that window of oppertunity is like tiny tiny here.

What bothers me about them is that they don't keep well. We've thrown out 2 boxes the past week and a half. Have to eat them within a day or 2 at most or they are rotten.

Any storage tips to keep them longer?