What's up with the plum taste here?

When I get plum in America, it’s delicious and fruity. However, in Taiwan… plum drinks always seem to taste like I just chugged bbq sauce mixed with A1 steak sauce. Is it just me?

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Thank you! I thought it was just me.

They don’t just use fresh plums–that would be too light and fruity tasting. It’s some variation on this

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They grow different varieties here. The fat fruit ones grow in Taiwan, but are heavily affected by weather and recent climate change. Most are imported now.

The smaller green ones are used.more for health/flavor/marketing. they are a different thing. Like comparing a green mango to a huge red one. different uses :joy:

Many times they are used more like a spice rather than a table fruit.

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Had a sip of my wife’s plum smoothie and gagged :joy:

If one grows up with chinese medicine type flavors, the powdered plum flavors actually make a lot of sense :slight_smile:

I am not a fan either, but can appreciate it.

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Ahh that’s the missing ingredient!!! It’s like Chinese medicine flavored bbq sauce

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I’ve been here long enough to enjoy mei-dzi fen with guava, but plain guava is also good. I grew up on a farm with 100 year old plum trees which produced small sour plums. My mother used them to to make plum jam which she gave to our teachers at Christmas (poor teachers!). I think the fruit called dragon’s egg (kong-long dan) is also a kind of plum.

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I think it’s a pluot.

That looks about right

But if it’s a cross between a plum and an apricot, why no apricots? ( disclaimer: I LOVE apricots)

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That’s a lot of 1-year old plum trees! Didn’t know they produced fruit that early.

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Okay… 100-year-old plum trees, happy?

For what you had assumed to be grammatically correct, I would have had to have written “100 year-old plum trees” (with the hyphen). #grammarnazi

the big juicy sweeter plums are available here. both imported and locally grown. purple and yellow types are somewhat common. but as mentioned, climate change is affecting local production in recent years. our winters are not cold enough for long enough sometimes. so it is a year by year situation. Small country, very extreme landscapes that can be utilized, so no question things like most stone fruits are going to be hit or miss at this latitude in this current climate shift. Taiwan has beyond the best other fruits like cherimoya, wax apple etc. but temperate fruits are not the specialty here, despite the price and marketing attempts.

a picture from a random fruit stand last night…they are around :slight_smile: obviously not as good as those from.say north america where there might be half a whole Taiwan under cultivation haha.

passed 3 vendors that had purple, the other I felt rude to take pics but they had lots all wrapped in plastic. this one was a granny and happy to allow me to take pictures.