How to know the taste of melon without cutting the fruit: choose the ripest and sweetest one

Choosing a melon that is not just beautiful, but also delicious is a real skill. Many of our readers do not know how to do this and rely on the opinion of the seller. However, there is nothing difficult in checking the fruit yourself - you just need to look at it carefully and smell it.

Let's find out the variety

The taste and aroma of melon depend on its degree of ripeness, growing conditions, and even how it was stored. But most of all - from the variety. Therefore, the first thing you need to do when choosing a fruit is to ask the seller the name of the variety (in the market) or take a closer look at the information on the price tag (in the store).

On the territory of the Russian Federation you can most often find delicious melons of the following varieties:

• 
  Collective farmer — its fruits are small (from 0.5 to 1.5 kg), round in shape, a network of veins on the skin forms round cells. The color of the peel is yellow-orange, the pulp is white. This melon is very sweet and fragrant; it appears on the shelves from the beginning of August.
• 
  Torpedo — melons with oblong fruits weighing about 2–3 kg are usually imported from Uzbekistan. They go on sale en masse at the end of August or beginning of September. They have a distinct aroma, reminiscent of a mixture of vanilla, pears and honey. If grown where there is a lot of sun and light, they have a very pleasant sweet taste.
• 
  Cantaloupe, otherwise called cantaloupe. It is usually imported from Morocco and Thailand, so it is sold in supermarkets throughout the year.Its skin is light, covered with a thick mesh and as if divided into slices. The pulp is pale orange, less sweet than other varieties, and is not very juicy. Long-term storage has a bad effect on the taste of the fruit - they become “nothing.”
• 
  Honey - appears on the markets at the end of July. It is easy to recognize by its round-oval shape and strong smell with honey notes. Its crust is bright yellow, almost without mesh. The pulp is tender, very sweet. The average fruit weight is 2 kg.
• 
  Avocado - melon comes from Thailand. Its flesh is always light green, but the color of its skin varies from green to brown. It gets its name from its taste, reminiscent of avocado. You shouldn’t expect any special sweetness or mind-blowing aroma from the fruits of this variety.

If you have a choice, take Kolkhoznitsa, Torpedo or Honey Melon - they will definitely delight you with their sweetness and pronounced aroma. But Cantaloupe and Avocado are not melons for everyone.

Occasionally in the markets you can find Chardzhui melons, also known as Gulaba. Their pulp is fibrous and unsuitable for consumption raw. But such fruits are good for drying and canning.

Weigh in hand

Having decided on the variety, it’s time to move on to choosing the ripest melon from among those lying on the counter. One way to do this is to weigh the fruit you like in the palm of your hand. If it is lighter than you expected, then there is definitely something wrong with it, but if it turns out to be much heavier than you might think when visually assessing its size, it means that it is most likely ripe and has accumulated the maximum amount of sugars.

Feeling the tail

To make sure the melon is ripe and buy the tastiest one, do another test - lightly press with your finger near the place where the fruit had a tail. The peel should be pliable, but not too soft.If the rind is hard, like armor, it is better not to buy such a melon: there is a high probability that it was taken from the melon plant much earlier than it should have been, and it has not yet had time to ripen.

What does melon sound like?

When buying watermelons, it is customary to “tap” them. With a melon, if you don’t know which one to take, you can do the same thing - pat it on the side with your palm and listen to the sound. It should be dull - this indicates that the fruit is juicy and ripe.

Checking the smell

And finally, you need to smell the melon. Preferably near the tail, because it is from this place that the fruit begins to rot. If you smell an unpleasant or too cloying smell, it means that the process of rotting has already begun. The absence of any aroma is a sign of immaturity. And if you come across a copy with a sweet, tasty smell (perhaps with notes of vanilla, pineapple, duchess, honey), buy it - this is exactly what you need.

Now you know how to choose the right melon so that it is sweet, juicy and aromatic. Don't trust the seller - to fully enjoy the gifts of summer, check the melon yourself.