Fruit of the Week: Ataulfo Mango

Name: Ataulfo Mango

Brand: Pilot Organic

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Ecuador

Price in Iowa: $1.29 each

Description: A fist-sized, yellow ovoid.

Flavor: Sour and starchy. Aside from the tartness, the flavor was kind of bland.

Aroma: Starch and latex.

Texture/Mouth-feel: Smooth, firm and moist. Not stringy at all. Kind of astringent.

Notes:I love mango. Mostly as a juice; but I'll eat mango in salad, mix mango into smoothies, put mangoes on ice cream, cook mangos into stuffing, baste my poultry with mangoes. You get the idea. So, imagine my delight when I come across a different variety of mango at the Wheatsfield Co-op in the organic produce aisle. I bought the little morsel and took it home for immediate inspection. My wife inquired "What the heck is that?" I told her that it was "a different variety of mango." The Ataulfo is also called the Manilla or Champagne Mango. It's marketed for its smooth, buttery flesh and was originally cultivated in Mexico. It is also hard to find as an organic product. So, with that sales pitch she was excited too. We peeled off the skin and sliced all of the flesh away from the thin pit (the Tai Dam way of slicing a mango is creating a bunch of thin slices, rather than the traditional Indian hedgehog). The flesh was buttery smooth and devoid of fibers. The fruit itself was a smack in the face of sour, followed by a starchy blah. There was none of the flowery complexity found in the Florida or Hawaii-grown varieties that I've had before. Part of that could easily come from the fact that unripe mangoes are chosen for shipment, and they always lack the flavor of a fresh, tree-ripened fruit. It could also be that, yet again, I should have let my fruit ripen for a day or two before digging into it. Patience is a virtual, and the product of patience is apparently sweeter produce.