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.