Sunday, November 7, 2021

A tasting of ten white sapote cultivars

 These white sapote fruits were collected from a friend’s orchard on November 6 and tasted on November 7, 2021.


Top rows on both pictures, left to right: 4H4, Fournoy, Lemon Gold, Walton, Santa Cruz.
Bottom row on both pictures, left to right: Malibu #3, Suebelle, Fiesta, 3C2, Rainbow.

4H4 - excellent and complex flavor, very sweet, caramel flavored with a hint of acidity. The skin is very thin but bitter.

Fournoy - pretty good, sweet, soft fleshed, thin skinned. The skin is not bitter.

Lemon Gold - very nice, creamy, caramel flavored, no lemon flavor in this fruit and the skin is not bitter.

Walton - excellent and intense flavored, sweet, custardy, baked milk flavored, the skin is not bitter.

Santa Cruz - the flesh is very soft and melting, sweet and creamy. The skin is very thin but bitter.

Malibu #3 - intense flavor, very sweet and creamy, the skin is not bitter. Very good to excellent fruit.

Suebelle - the flavor is just ok with some funky note in it. The skin is not bitter. 

Fiesta - not particularly sweet, but soft and melting flesh. The skin is bitter. Just an ok fruit for this sample.

3C2 - the flavor is intense and sweet but also has some bitterness in it. The flesh structure is firm and very creamy. The skin is bitter.

Rainbow - excellent flavor, the flesh is firm, very sweet, caramel flavored. The skin is not bitter.

My picks from this tasting are 4H4, Walton, Malibu #3, and Rainbow. 

I suspect that Santa Cruz should be very good too, but the fruits sampled here were overripe and affected by mealybugs. The Fiesta fruit was probably underripe in this sample.

The scions of white sapote cultivars are usually available during the late winter - early spring sale at reallygoodplants.com



5 comments:

  1. One time Paul Thomson spoke to our chapter about white sapotes. I remember him saying that he thought the Rainbow had potential as a commercial variety because it had a thicker skin and would probably pack and ship well. I’m fairly certain that the Malibu variety comes from the Adamsome House where there are a few trees. Whether or not this variety was started from a cutting or seed from the trees is unknown by me.

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    Replies
    1. Very good information never knew any thing about white variety

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  2. That's awesome info! Do you know if 4H4, Walton and Malibu#3 are pollenator varieties? I think Rainbow is pollen sterile.

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    1. I don’t know about 4H4, Malibu #3 is sterile, Walton is producing pollen. More data in this publication https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/42/6/article-p1329.xml

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