+ Mango 4 +

+ Mango 4 +

Name: R2E2
Origin: Australia
Size: 11 x 10 x 9 cm
Weight: 498g

A glorious looking beast; huge, heavy and solid; a cannonball. It turns from green at its base to flame red in its northern hemisphere. The skin is thick and waxy, opening up to an orange-yellow interior. The flesh is smooth and firm, easy to carve and handle. There is fibre near the stone, but not much, and little juice escapes when it is cut. It smells, curiously, very much like newly mown grass; fresh vegetation.

Unfortunately, for all these charms, the fruit fails to deliver. Does it over-sell itself, or was it just not in peak condition? The taste
is bland, neither sweet, nor acidic. No juice, sugar, perfume, no fruit! The parts nearer the stone are better than by the skin, but not
by much. Its name is supposed to refer to the position of the seedling in the field where it was first grown, but I would have chosen
another. Leave it in the fruit bowl.

Its has a big stone weighing 103g, and the skin takes the total to
168g, so the overall fruit ratio is an acceptable 66:34.

++

L. Shepherd