Very cool pics, must have been a joy eating them! I've always like Dr. White (large fruit, smooth, sweet, but still a little acid).

Have you also tried Booth, Pierce, or Nata in addition to the 3 you mentioned above? How would you rate Booth, Pierce, Nata compared to these?

So far mine goes
1. Selma: best sweet/acid balance and just had the best flavor to me
2. Bays: Just ate this one, tasted really good but WAY to many seeds. I didn't count but I would guess about 40 seeds.
3. White: Juiciest of them all so far and a nice sweet flavor
4: Fino de jete: probably not ripe enough but I though it was dry and grainy

Still have a lucida, pierce, and another Selma to taste (I am going to let this selma get a bit riper than the first).

I only ordered 2 varieties from cherimoya.com I had:
1. 3 Fino de Jete- These fruits surprised me. The first one I ate was nice and soft and flavor was great. I noticed that the closer I got to the stem the more sweet it was. In general first fruit was good. 2 Fino was better than first I ate 3/4 of the fruit myself. I quickly realized that I was not wanting to share these fruits but I still did. Again the closer to the stem the better. 3rd fruit was today. This was the last Fino. My fruits arrived Saturday but it took this long for it to be ripe. For some reason, this fruit was the best of the Finos. The flavor of the entire fruit tasted like the flesh of the top of theother fruits. I loved this one. I didn't notice any graininess at all except for a thin layer that was closest to the skin. There also wasn't as many seeds in this Fino. The other 2 had around 30-40 seeds in each. I actually didn't mind all those seeds.
2. Pierce- Not a favorite of mine. This fruit was chewy and not soft like the Finos at all. Flavor was fainter also. If I decide to try it again, I will have to really let it ripen but I thought it may have rotted like my first Pierce.
I am planning on buying 2 more boxes. I think I will get 1 each of five diffrent varieties and buy 5 more Finos. I just hope they don't run out. I chose to get a grafted Fino de Jete tree. I also read a response on tropical fruit forum that someone had said that cherimoya from seed was just as good as the fruit it came from. I kept most of my Fino seeds and I plan on giving some away and I kept the Pierce seeds also. I wont plant the Pierce until I try other varieties. I will probobly plant 20 of the Fino de Jetes and thin them down to 2-3 trees. This annona has now become my favorite. According to Kristi the sugar apples will be in season when I go to Florida this summer. Then I will get to find out how they taste in comparison.
Andrew

hahaha...because my 10 lbs cherimoya was not enough to share with my in-laws and friends, I ordered 15 lbs more...lol. I asked for more 3 Bays, 3 Lucida, 2 Fino, White, Pierce, and Salma.

I also ordered a box of the white sapote. Anyone like the sapote here? I never taste it before.

i like sapote :) Ripe fruit is super sweet.

ah nvm, i was thinking of sapodilla. Just googled white sapote, Im not familiar with this fruit. :)

I tasted one of my sapotes tonight. I don't think it was quite ripe enough but it was ok. Not great but not bad. A little more grainy than I was expecting.

Nice pics ch3rri! I already gave my descriptions on the Hybrid and Selma and last night I tried Dr. White,Booth and Chaffey.

Chaffey had a yellowish green skin which was very soft so I had to be careful not to eat it. It had large seeds and the flesh was yellowish white in color. There was slight grittyness near the skin. It had average cherimoya taste, sweet but not overly sweet, very little acidity. Nothing that stands out.

Dr. White was large super juicy, super bright white flesh that is very sweet and had great acidity. There was slight grittyness near the skin but everything else was smooth as silk. I loved the smooth juicy flesh, one of my favorite varieties. I have read that Asians tend to like Dr. White while others may think it is overwhelmingly too sweet.

Booth, at least these particular ones I recieved were medium sized, slightly irregular shapped with white flesh that was medium juicy, medium smooth and had excellent acidity. There was very noticeable lemony flavor (acidity) and my wife liked this variety the most out of all the cultivars we tried.

To tell you the truth, after tasting all these different varieties, they all started kind of blending together after a while. I ate 3 whole cherimoyas in one sitting by myself last night and was so full of cherimoyas but this morning, I was craving them again.

I have purchased different varieties of cherimoyas online for the last 3 years and each year, I notice the varieties taste slightly different. I think it is due to different growing conditions, differences in harvesting dates, ect. Remember that its very difficult to tell when a cherimoya is fully mature. Not all cherimoyas on the same tree will ripen at the same time. I'll post pics soon.

Simon- You are right about the Asian thing. We Asians do like the sweeter fruit more...lol.

I just ate another Fino this morning with my mom and we were like wow. It was so sweet and chewy at the same time. Now the first one we ate was a little on the softer side.

To my conclusion, if the cherimoya just ripen then the flesh is more on the chewy side. If you leave it for another day then the flesh is softer and less chewy. It's actually more refreshing eating them just ripe.

I too will order these every year from now on...hehehe. Maybe I don't need to plant a tree since I can get such good fruits deliver to my door.

Kristy

Simon,
I agree with what you said about the ripening of the fruit. I wonder if that was why my Pierce was kind of crappy. The flavor was so so but the flesh was still more firm even when it had sat for 4 days. The Finos were by far superior to me. The first Fino was very good. Nice smooth flesh and not grainy except for the flesh closest to the skin. I used my spoon until there was very little left and then I picked up the fruit and scraped the remaining flesh with my teeth. I wasn't wasting any of the flesh! 2nd Fino better than first. On both the first and the second, the flesh closest to the srem had the best flavor. A lot of seeds in both. I had 40 in first and about the same in the second. The last Fino was by far the best of all my moyas. When I cut the fruit, the juice came pouring out. I picked up the plate and slurped it down. The flesh had the best flavor. It was equally as good at the top and bottom and it didn't have near as many seeds.
I plan on getting 1 whole box of Fino next week and the other box will be a mix of diffrent varieties. I really enjoyed these fruits. I can't wait for my tree. I planted a whole bunch of these seeds. I would like to have 2-3 Fino trees.
Andrew

Andrew- first you need to dry those seeds before planting. After drying then you soak it for like 48 hrs before planting. I read it somewhere. Also, the one that float is not good for planting. I will dry my seeds for a week first.

Kristy

ch3rri, thank you for your excellent analysis, keep up the good blog.

i notice Asians tend to like very sour foods, carambola, mango, tamarind, and they like foods with complete contrast in flavor like green mango and pepper sauces or sweet and sour. some of these Asian fruits probably originated being sour then cultivated sweeter for western tastes.

i am Indian/Asian which of course is an entirely different taste preference and palette.

hehehehe...yes, if the fruit should be sweet then we like it very sweet. If the fruit should be sour then we like it sour.lol. We like green mango and june plum. Eating them with salt and pepper or fish sauce with sugar and chillies. Actually the tamarind is sweet when it's ripe. I think I like the sweet carambola better...lol.

We Asians are just weird sometime...hehehe

We ate the 3rd Fino today and man this one is super good and sweet. It's also juicy and chewy too! Gosh...so hard to decide which one we like best. I think all of them are good. Each cherimoya is different even so even with the same variety the fruit can be different in sweetness and chewiness.

Kristi,
I was sent a bunch of seeds from Tammy a while ago and those went in first. I did not soak them for 48 hours but if they don't grow there's a lot more where they came from and more to come!! I agree with you. I like sour fruits also. Sour Tamarind, sometimes to me is more sour than lemons. I remember sweating when I ate it the first time but it didn't stop me from eating it!! Keep up with the blog, very enjoyable. I still look at it every now and then.
Andrew

I just ate half of a Lucida. Not sure, but this may be the best one yet. Actually, for me they have all been good. Since they ripened and were eaten over a several day period it is really tough to compare from your mind's memory. A side by side comparison over a season is the only way to do this right. When fruits get to a certain level of quality and flavor, the nuances are lost unless you compare equally mature and ripe fruits in a side by side test. Getting the perfectly ripe fruits to coincide with each other is the real trick. That's why I say you need to do it over a season and you'll get a more accurate evaluation of your preference for a particular fruit over another. That being said, these cherimoyas are really fantastic....each and every one so far. I am enjoying them tremendously. The last one to try is Pierre.

Harry

Well I guess I will have to put Lucida on the list with Dr. White, and Pierce. The rest will be the Fino de Jete.
Andrew

Hahhaa....it was so hard for me to decide too. So I asked for all varieties. I got the shipping notice so I should get my 3 boxes of cherimoya and 1 box of white sapote this Friday.

Andrew, you should try Bays also just to try. Maybe you will like it. The Lucida really have a stronger lemony flavor than the Fino. But still very juicy and soft enough.

Andrew, don't forget selma...

Tried my pierce last night. Not one of my favorites. Tasted pretty good buy had way too many seeds and was a little grainy. I have the Lucida left for tonight. So far the Selma is still tops for me.

Jsvand,
I am pretty sure that the Selma is gone now. I think that is what someone said here but if not I will try it unless all the Finos are gone then I probobly wont bother with getting more this season. That was my fav.
Andrew

Just ate the lucida. The flavor was one of the best, but it had some kind of really tough coating around all of the seeds so there was not as much edible flesh as on the other types.

Funny.....I just ate Pierce and found it had the fewest seeds of any of the fruits I have had. It was more dry and firm than the others and was as sweet as honey. There was a slight bitter after taste in the flesh closest to the skin. Overall, again very good, but probably my least favorite because of the after taste. I might have gotten a bit too greedy and ate too close to the exterior of the fruit.

Harry

Hy All, i wrote this out last night and it did not post...for pics go to link below.

I think simon is right...they are all really great varieties, i think alot depends on it you eat it at the right time. For my the hybrid was probably my least favorite because it was too mushy, but prob my fault for waiting to long to eat.

the selma was great but really similiar to the booth. they were seedy.

I still really loved my fino de jete that i got from cherimoya.com last time...great flavor and very few seeds.

here is my blog post:

We are in the midst of cherimoya season. Boy are these fruit delicious. I ordered a box from calimoya.com to see if there was a difference in quality from cherimoya.com but i am happy to report that they are both quality places to order cherimoyas. I was able to try some varieties of cherimoyas that are not easily available in stores.

Here are the cherimoyas I received: Booth, Chaffey, Dr. White (aka White), Selma and a hybrid. The hybrid was gigantic, about the size of a largegrapefruit.

selma: Here is the infamous and rare selma, a pink fleshed fruit. It is a smaller fruit and irregular shaped. The taste was really great. Sweet with good acid. It has an intense cherimoya flavor and a little graininess near the ski. My mom loved this one the best. It is very delicious but almost too sweet for my taste so I was not able to eat more than 1/4 of it.

Booth Cherimoya: Unfortunately I did not take pics of the inside but this had a very similiar flavor, shape and size to selma. It is very sweet with good acid. A very delicious cherimoya.

Chaffey Cherimoya: I am growing the chaffey cherimoya so I was very anxious to try it. It is a juicy and sweet cherimoya with mild flavor. I can also see why it is not a big commercial variety as the skin is VERY thin and it bruises easily. This variety probably has more graininess than other varieties but my husband actually liked it because it reminded him of the pears he grew up eatting in pear country.

Dr. White Cherimoya: What a sweet and juicy cherimoya the white is! We all really enjoyed this fruit. It is larger and has a mild cherimoya flavor. I can see why this is so popular with commercial growers.

Calimoya Hybrid: This fruit is humungous. I can see why it is so popular. Unfortunately by the time we ate it, it was overripe so it was too sweet and mushy for me. I will try it again and review it again.

I am getting alot better at knowing when to eat the cherimoya. I like them when they just start to soften up before they get overripe. I think that is when i detect the licorice flavor is from overripe fruit. I only tasted it with the hybrid.

Here is a link that might be useful: cherimoya review and pics: selma, white, chaffey, booth & hybrid

Hehehe....I ate my last Fino today. It was so sweet and juicy. One of my Fino have the coating on the seeds too. But the fruit was nice and sweet.

My Lucida didn't have any coating on the seeds. All three varieties are good.

I am really starting to think each fruit, even of the same variety, may be a little different. I am wondering if the amount of seeds has more to do with pollination than what variety the fruit is? Either way all of mine were pretty good.

my final ranking is
Selma
Bays
White
Lucida
Pierce
Fino (under ripe I think)

Guys, my cherimoyas and white sapote are here. But I only got mostly Bays, Fino, and 2 Pierce. I didn't get any other variety that I requested. I wanted to try other variety too. Maybe they are running out?

Kristy:

Any you don't want, send to me....I'll take get them out of your way.

Harry

Hahahhaha...I don't even have enough to share with families. I think I will have to order again for my sister....lol

ok, this last order I picked up a box of Pierce and one of Lucida. The Pierce had a nice flavor, juicy, mostly smooth textured, some acidity, not too many seeds. One of the four fruits I ate you could take full bites and only spit out one or two seeds.

Lucida was nice too, a little milder in flavor, juicy, nice flavor, small round seeds that separated easily. The down side, all four fruits had inedible bits in it. I'm guessing they were imature seeds or something but not good whatever they were. Other than the inedible parts it was a good cultivar (very pretty too).

so my list (keeping in mind all the variables:ripeness, climate, etc):
1. Dr. White
2. Fino
3/4. Pierce/Selma (tied)
5. Lucida

I thought I had tried El Bumpo but it was a seedling (good tasting though) so it is not on the list.

Picked up some more cherimoyas at the Farmer's Market lastnight, can't wait for them to ripen.

-Ethan

OK here is my ranking for these specific Cherimoyas for this specific year:

1) Dr. White, super juicy, super smooth texture, very sweet, good acidity and high flesh to seed ratio

2) Booth, that lemony (acidic) flavor did it for me, it was the most acidic cherimoya I had this year. Good juicyness, not too sweet.

3) Selma, good acidiy, good sweetness but it does have a lot of seeds. I would have ranked it higher but the flesh was not evenly ripened throughout. Some parts were overripe and mushy and other parts of the same fruit were perfectly ripened.

4) Hybrid, lacked acidity but it was super smooth.

5) Chaffey, lacked acidity when compared to the others.

Has anyone ordered from either Calimoya or Cherimoya.com and also tasted El Bumpo or HoneyHeart? I am very interested in how El Bumpo and HoneyHeart compare to these Cherimoyas we all recently recieved.

Simon,
I have looked at Calimoya and considered ordering from them if cherimoya.com runs out and calimoya still has fruit. i did notic that calimoya is more pricey, maybe because there fruit are organic? I haven't tasted either. I was going to order a Honey heart tree without tasting the fruit but I went with the Fino de Jete instead. If I do order from calimoya and they carry those 2 varieties I will let you know.
Andrew

Ethan, I had the same problem with the Lucida and the inedible parts. It's too bad because I really liked the flavor but that kind of ruined it for me.

I had been wondering what the cherimoya taste was like... and it's really hard to describe if you've never had it. I bought some at a fruit market a few years ago and it was sweet, savory, and a little bit weird LOL