Noni

Morinda citrifolia · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

Noni is the lumpy, greenish-yellow fruit of Morinda citrifolia, a small evergreen tree of the coffee family native to Southeast Asia and Australasia and spread across the Pacific by Polynesian voyagers. Notorious for a ripe smell likened to rancid cheese or vomit, it is eaten as a famine food and, more often, fermented into a pungent juice prized in traditional medicine.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, waxy, greenish-yellowCollapsed, leaking, alcoholic

Cream, first giveYellowing over, the cheese note climbing. Ripen it out of the fruit bowl and away from anything you want to keep smelling of itself.A day or two off

SkinTurning pale cream, glossy over each facet

PressFirst give under a thumb, still holding its shape

SmellCheesy note rising, sharpest close to the skin

Stem scarScar dry, the edge darkening

What to look for, from hard, waxy, greenish-yellow to collapsed, leaking, alcoholic.

Preparing