Sapodilla
Manilkara zapota · Tropical fruit
Top 10 pairings
The sapodilla is a round, russet-brown tropical fruit with a thin, sandy-rough skin and soft, granular flesh that tastes like brown sugar, malt and pear soaked in caramel. Known across Asia as chikoo or sapota and through the Americas as nispero or chicozapote, it is eaten ripe and yielding, scooped from the skin with a spoon. The tree is famous for a second gift: its milky latex, chicle, was the original base of chewing gum.
Picking a good onedrag
Ripe, yielding, sweet at the scarSplit, weeping, winey
Fully ripe and softeningEat in a day or twoSoft right through but still holding its shape, the malt smell now carrying. As sweet as it gets: eat it with a spoon, or blend it with lime and coconut before it slumps.
SkinDeeper brown and dulling, the scurf all gone
The squeezeSoft right through, but still holds its shape
Stem scarScar dry and flush, still no milk at a press
Smell at the scarFuller and maltier, carrying a step away