Why don't Taiwan avocadoes have any taste?

A tree ripened avocado should taste the same anywhere in the world that they grow, right? Wrong! I’ve bought avocadoes on four occasions and much to my chagrin they have no taste at all! Taiwanese tell me that that’s why the locals simply put them thru a blender and make a drink out of them.

I still would like to know why they are so beautiful, ripe and completely tasteless. is it the PH factor?
I’ve lived half of my long life in Mexico so I’m very qualified at spotting a tree ripened avocado–just in case you wondered why I’m so opinionated.

Avocados have a taste??? :astonished:

It’s a mystery as most veggies and fruit here are so good. I remember when they first starting growing avocados about 12 years ago. I was so excited but yes like you discovered they are flavorless. Not sure why they haven’t improved.

Avocado trees grow much nicer fruit if they have some good cold snaps in the wintertime… I bet they don’t get that here. The best ones are from California and Mexico… don’t feel bad… Taiwanese bananas are superior as are lots of other fruits… though I was surprised to see California grapes at Carrefour today…

Taiwan flies over cherries and grapes from the USA on a daily basis. And import a lot of American apples and pears and even peaches (which are probably flown over).

We get plenty of cold snaps in winter with the arctic Mongolian winds dropping temps even in Taipei down to 9 degrees 4-5 times over the winter. Also snow at higher elevations. Possibly they aren’t growing avocados in the right locations. It surprises me considering Taiwan has growing conditions ranging from tropical to sub-arctic and a huge range of soils. Surely there is somewhere on this island that avocados can grow well. :neutral:

As for grapes, they aren’t very tasty either. O always buy imported if I buy any.

double post. now i’m toast.

actually i like the huge taiwan grapes. they can be very tasty !

and yes i guess they need more research as to where to grow the avocados. someone needs to do that tho, it doesnt happen by itself.

I think Taiwan’s grapes are ‘grape’ (great) , need to get them in season and in the right place.

[quote=“enn”]A tree ripened avocado should taste the same anywhere in the world that they grow, right? Wrong! I’ve bought avocadoes on four occasions and much to my chagrin they have no taste at all! Taiwanese tell me that that’s why the locals simply put them thru a blender and make a drink out of them.

I still would like to know why they are so beautiful, ripe and completely tasteless. is it the PH factor?
I’ve lived half of my long life in Mexico so I’m very qualified at spotting a tree ripened avocado–just in case you wondered why I’m so opinionated.[/quote]

My understanding is that it depends a lot on the type of avocado and amount of drainage that the avocado gets. Too much water and/or wrong variety and presto whammo some pretty bad flavor… My guess is that the types that are grown early on were flavorless and lent themselves to juicing uses as opposed to eating uses. Just a guess though…

There are many different types of avocado …

:whistle:

So, why should every ‘tree’ ripened avocado taste the same? :ponder:

[quote]#86
102
1392
3-1-1
ANAHEIM
ARDITH
AVIS
BACON
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BEEBE
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CLIFTON
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EDRANOL
ESTHER
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FUERTE
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IGNACIO
IRIET
IRVING
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JIM
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Mexicola Grande
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NOWELS
ORCO
P78
PINKERTON
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PUEBLA
REED
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SIR PRIZE
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[/quote]

:roflmao:

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Avocadoes grown in the area of Acapulco are very delicious although Acapulco never drops below 50F. I don’t think it has anything to do with cold weather.

Count me in with people who feel that Taiwanese avocados have no smell or taste as I have known my whole life. The texture is correct, but strangely, no taste or smell. I’ve purchased Taiwanese avocados to make guacamole at home and they look like avocados, but they don’t smell or taste like avocados at all. Hawaiian avocados, Californian avocados, Texan avocados, Mexican avocados, have deep green meat with a very strong smell and flavor, but Taiwanese are just bland. :ponder:

Yeah, and the green peppers here are pretty lame too.

OK, I spent some time recently with a horticulturalist friend who is also a master gardener, and I asked her about this. She pointed me to source of the info you need… Taiwan is growing “local” avocados, which are the lame ones from the West Indies. Y’all need to import some Mexican ones. And they don’t grow true from pits, so don’t ask me to smuggle stuff in my luggage. :wink:

[quote]There are three distinct horticultural races of avocado – West Indian, Guatemalan and Mexican – plus hybrids between them. West Indian types are the least cold tolerant and somewhat watery in flavor, but they have the greatest tolerance to salinity and some diseases. For our purposes, West Indian avocados are useful primarily as rootstocks because of their high salt tolerance.

The Mexican race is the most cold tolerant but the least salt tolerant. Its fruit ripens in the summer and is usually of good flavor. The fruit is rarely larger than 8 to 12 ounces, is green to purple or black, and has very thin skin. Because the skin is so thin, the fruit are very susceptible to disease. The crushed leaves of the Mexican race of avocados have a distinct odor of anise (licorice), which is lacking in the other races.

The Guatemalan race of avocados is essentially intermediate between the other two, and its hybrids with the other two races include many of the more important varieties in commerce.

‘Lula’ is the variety of commerce in the lower Rio Grande Valley [Texas], with fruits nearing a pound in size and having a green, thick peel which resists disease quite well. It matures in October and stores well on-tree into January or February. ‘Lula’ sustains severe freeze damage below 27 degrees, although it commonly regrows from below ground. Seeds from ‘Lula’ are the preferred rootstock for all avocados in South Texas, as it is fairly tolerant to existing soil salinity.[/quote]

This nursery will ship to some countries, potentially including Taiwan. This page and the ones that follow are a fascinating journey through the various fruits of the tropics and subtropics, well-written in English (though you will have to do your own F to C and inches to cm conversions). http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/fruitproducts_ab.htm

Old topic, but I’m Mexican, worked at restaurants for 10 years and wanted to add that avocados themselves don’t have a lot of flavor, if you want to cut an avocado and expect it to taste like guacamole you’ll be disappointed.

You want to throw in there some salt/pepper/garlic, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapeños and some lime juice.

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What do you mean “true”? Not all pits will sprout successfully, but I’ve sprouted a couple from pits… one is now three feet high.

What do you mean “true”? Not all pits will sprout successfully, but I’ve sprouted a couple from pits… one is now three feet high.[/quote]

Isn’t it that it’s hard to get a fruiting tree from pits? We have a 3 footer here too.
I’ve just finished off the last of last year’s avocados - pureed a load and stuck it in the freezer. Fairly acceptable, once garlicked and lemoned up.

What do you mean “true”? Not all pits will sprout successfully, but I’ve sprouted a couple from pits… one is now three feet high.[/quote]

He means the quality of the fruit won’t necessarily match the parent tree: no idea about avocadoes specifically, but a lot of the fruit you buy has been vegetatively propagated (cuttings grafted onto a rootstock), not grown from seed. That’s the only way to get guaranteed characteristics of a particular named variety. It also results in a fairly stumpy tree that’s easy to harvest, and quicker time-to-market (fruit trees in general take 5-7 years to become productive). However, if you’re lucky, a fruit tree grown from seed may occasionally be exceptionally good, although an inferior result is more usual. You might even end up with your own commercially-viable variety, which you can name after yourself :slight_smile:

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They are indeed slightly sweeter in Taiwan… in fact everything kinda is, pineapple is a bit less acidic than Cali/xico.
Now, if you could find anywhere in Taiwan where they sell the “Hass Avocado” …