Being a wordsmith (author) I would use the term to mean uninspiring. I would hardly call a good pomelo insipid.... sweet, dry, candy-like, perhaps, but not insipid.

Yeah that's what's got me confused. I love pomelo. Good flavor with a crunch not expected from citrus. But what people describe as insipid is how pomelo is described but it's not insipid.

John I take it you are/have written a book or few. The last time we talked you took 1st place in the inter galactic curmudgeon contest. You are definitely moving forward an upward.

Here is my sweet lemon. The sweet lemon and Meiwa kumquats are my favorite citrus. I have heard both called insipid.

Steve,

I have written 3 books, 2 of them are available on Kindle E-books, "The Godminers", a history of our future; and "A Walkabout of Life", not all who wander are lost.

FYI, I am still trying my hardest to become an internationally certified curmudgeon.

Pip You have heirloom sweet pepper seeds heading your way. These seeds were brought over to the US 300 years ago and have stayed in that family.. No one in the family had an interest in them any more and I got a bag 6 years ago. I only grow these peppers now. My email is included so we can talk on topics not citrus.

Generally a citrus is called insipid when it is very low in acid. Sweet citrus like oranges have high acid but also lots of sugar too. An insipid fruit will have sugar but without the high acid,they taste flat to some people, without the zip most citrus have. Some like that taste some don't.

Interestingly a lot of the fruit usually only birds eat is often insipid to people, I wonder if birds prefer low acid fruit.

But does that mean pomelo is insipid?

Insipid is only a word; some use it to mean one thing, some another. A pomelo is a great fruit, no matter what word you use to describe it. Words are very poor tools to express emotion or feeling or tastes.

I would suppose it depends on the variety of pomelo. I think they are generally less acid than an orange but more acid than say a sweet lime. I wouldn't call them insipid myself but I would call a sweet lime insipid. Like John said it's just a word. It's used to describe a low acid fruit. Whether one likes that taste or not is opinion.

Right, does vanilla blood taste like a pomelo? Is it only "insipid" because people expect something different because it's an orange?

Probably. Most people expect oranges to taste sweet and tangy. I also don't think pomelo are insipid. They're lower acid than an orange but they have more acid than a sweet lime, which to me is really insipid.

I could tell you that alligator tastes like somewhere between a pork chop and a lobster; but until you taste alligator, you won't know what it tastes like.