The Pawpaw's First-time Tasters

With the first pawpaw that our Wells cultivar bore (a few weeks ago now), we held the First Annual Utah Pawpaw Festival.

But during the past week (maybe Wednesday?), the Wells cultivar dropped a second somewhat smaller pawpaw. What to do with this one? On Friday we decided to share it with some friends around the neighborhood, each of them first-time pawpaw tasters.

NJ and I have eaten so many pawpaws that to us a pawpaw tastes like a pawpaw. So we wanted to see what first-time pawpaw tasters would say about, well, their first time tasting a pawpaw.

Before dropping in at a few friends' houses, I took a picture of the spot on the table where the pawpaw had been ripening since falling from the tree.

We stopped by at the first house and found our friends willing to taste a pawpaw for the first time. They even let me use their brand new knife to cut it.

Before they tasted it, we had them smell it. KS said, "To me it has a pina colada smell," and RS said, "To me it smells like a star fruit, like unmistakably like a star fruit, with a hint of pineapple." And their daughter VS said, "Like a sapote and a fruit from Hawaii." (We had shared a mamey sapote with their family a few weeks ago; to me it seems like a high compliment to a pawpaw to be compared to a mamey sapote, since I can hardly imagine a better fruit than a good ripe mamey sapote.) 

What a nice looking pawpaw!

Based on my extensive notes, which I took as she spoke, this is what KS said: "It has the consistency of a mango. I like it. I'd say--I know passion fruit is its own kind of fruit, but I think of passion fruit as an umbrella of fruit...guava, papaya, passion fruit, and I would say pawpaw too. I'd say they're sister fruits. It's like a mild pina colada. Sapote is like a melony custard. Kind of like that too."

Then RS said, "See I taste a little banana-ish in there, both in the texture and in taste. Texture is very banana-ish. Definitely tropical to me. What else? So if you describe it without comparing it to other fruits--a mild sweetness but citrusy in some ways. I think you could eat a lot of them. It's mild enough to eat a lot of them but sweet enough to really like them. Closer to the skin it becomes a little more bitter, kind of like a watermelon. It's good. It's crazy that this comes from North America. It's unlike any other fruit in North America. I could taste a little coconut. Why don't people know about pawpaws?"

After we had imposed on this first family with a drive-by pawpaw tasting, we proceeded to the home of some other friends who had already heard that we were coming by. (In fact, earlier as I was walking home from work, MHE drove past me and said they were willing to taste the pawpaw anytime that evening before the football game at 8pm.)

Here's MHE and EE, with MHE pretending to eat a piece of pawpaw for the camera, and EE making a strange kind of muted yet also melodramatic face.

Before I gave any pawpaw to either of them, their 11-year-old son came into the kitchen and asked to try some. I gave him a bite and he said, "Feels like the same material as pumpkin. But it tastes like pineapple. It's good but I've had better."

Then MHE tried it and said, with raised eyebrows, "Melt in your mouth delicious. Kind of like a mellow mango. It has a really nice texture. Delightful. Not too overpowering."

Then EE tried it. I was curious about what he would say because he's got really unique perspectives in terms of taste, ever since he experience damage to the olfactory nerve during graduate school (for years he's called his condition "amnosia"). This is what he said: "The first commentary is--chewy banana. Second thought...I don't know--it's like a flavorful potato. But I will say this: way better than the sapote. I like this." Then EE's mom walked in and tried some and said, "This is probably way off, but my senses said, this tastes like some kind of medicine or mouthwash I've had in the past." And then EE piggybacked on that and continued: "It does have a hint of something they use at the dentist to shine your teeth. But not in a bad way."

Six people shared the one pawpaw. Here are its five seeds, which we'll be stratifying in the refrigerator so they'll sprout in the spring hopefully. Who knows but from these five seeds may spring five new pawpaw cultivars: the Starfruit, the Flavorful Potato, the Mellow Mango, the Passion Fruit Umbrella, and the Mouthwash.