One shot: Californian avocado vs. Peruvian avocado

    peru-cali
    On the left is a Hass avocado from Peru, on the right is a Hass avocado from California.

    Hass avocado is a cultivar of avocado, and it has a cute history. In 1925, Mr. Rudolph Hass, an amateur horticulturist, bought a small 1.5 acre avocado grove in La Habra Heights, Southern California. His plan was to graft old Fuerte avocado branches – at the time, Fuerte was the best avocado cultivar – with young saplings grown from some avocado seeds, which were sold at a local nursery. Those seeds were cross-pollinated many times by nature, and the grafting did not go well for one of the young trees [little stubborn sapling!], but per his grafter’s advice, Mr. Hass kept that sapling to see what would happen anyway. When the sapling was only over a foot tall (some time in 1926), it bore three fruits [d’awww!].

    Normally, the Fuerte cultivar would take at least five years to produce fruits. Not only the odd stubborn young tree grew faster than the Fuerte, it also grew straight up and did not spread as wide, so it was more land-efficient (more trees per acre). Most importantly, its fruits tasted the same, if not better than the Fuerte. Hence, the Hass avocado became the most popular varietal, making up 95% of all today commercially grown avocados. [Moral of the story: don’t cut down your tree even if it refuses to do what you want at first. 🙂 ]

    Back to California vs. Peru.

    Both of these are Hass avocados, and they’re roughly the same size (the Peruvian ones are slightly bigger). At Berkeley Bowl, the Peruvian Hass avocados were sold for 89 cents each. This is insanely cheap, considering the Californian ones (labelled “XX Large Hass avocado”) go for 1.69 dollars each. [How can imported produce be so cheap? I feel bad for the Peruvian farmers!] While I’m loyal to the Cali ones, I also love cheap things to try new things. I bought four of each type.

    Appearance: Cali: smooth skin, Peru: bumpy skin.
    (Now I understand why avocados are also called “alligator pear” – although I’ve never heard anyone say that myself).

    Convenience: Cali: knife easily cuts through the skin, Peru: I basically had to saw it open [same knife, in case you wonder]. So yes, the Peruvian skin is much thicker.

    Taste: Cali: normal buttery, Peru: quite bland.
    More concrete comparison: I always mash avocado, add some sugar and chill it in the fridge –> instant dessert (like ice cream). For the Cali avocado, 1 teaspoon of sugar is enough. For the Peru one, I add 2 teaspoons of sugar and it’s still bland (like a potato).

    Texture: Cali: soft, Peru: hardy and stringy.
    I couldn’t even mash the Peru one. Not because it’s not ripe. It was actually so ripe that the meat already darkened, but it was somewhat unyielding like a waxy potato. I also had to pull strings out of my “ice cream”, this avocado was so old a tree would grow out of it the next day.

    I’m not going to preach locavorism or anything, but it’s clear which one is the better choice. (Supermarket fruits are always picked unripe to survive the transportation, so I have doubts that the Peruvian avocados are actually inferior to the Californian ones, it’s just that they were transported from much further away, it’s a wonder they managed to preserve any flavor at all.)

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    54 comments to One shot: Californian avocado vs. Peruvian avocado

    • LUCKY

      IN MIAMI IT SEEMS WE GET ALL MEXICAN HASS AVOCADOS….THEY ROT SO QUICKLY AND I WAS TOLD IT IS BECAUSE THEY GAS THEM TO RIPEN, “WHO KNOWS.”

      THE PERUVIAN AVOCADOS THAT COSTCO SOLD ME WERE GREAT. BUT I’LL KEEP BUYING GREEN HASS AVOCADOS FOREVER, AND ALWAYS HOPE FOR THE BEST…

      WE’RE ALL AVOCADO LOVERS SO LET’S GET ALONG,

      MAY THE NEXT GREAT AVOCADO BE YOURS..

      FROM LUCKY WITH LOVE….

    • danmar

      I don’t agree Mai Truong. This is only your opinion and your palate.

    • Patty

      I don’t want to badmouth Peruvian avocados, knowing that they need to earn money from exporting agriculture products. But 4 out of 6 Peruvian avocados I got from Aldi all went rotten before they ripened. The 2 remaining ones did not rot, but the flesh was dark, impossible to separate from the seed. It was a mess to eat them.

      It seems that the main reason for the ‘rotten before ripen’ syndrome is picking time. So we need to choose those with slight softness. Do not think the low price can justify buying raw ones and consuming them in two weeks. The best probably is to buy Mexico avocados, which are available from August to May.

    • Hank

      I have tried the Peruvian avocados several times from Costco, Aldi’s and Lidyl’s. All of them were a big disappointment. Never ripened, stayed hard inside, tasted lousy and I am so disgusted. I am actively looking for where I can get the good avocados.

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