The Fruit Frenzy: A Journey Through Seven Exotic Tropical Fruits

As I delved into the world of tropical fruits, I encountered a diverse array of flavors and textures that left me questioning my culinary boundaries. My journey began with a small, unassuming fruit that was more than happy to introduce itself with its pungent aroma. The first fruit I came across was a bit of an acquired taste, with a smell that can only be described as sweet candy. Its appearance was unlike anything I had seen before - almost like a scrambled egg curd with a big pit inside it. Despite the initial hesitation, I decided to take a bite and discover its creamy texture and sweet pulp.

As I moved on to the next fruit, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. The second fruit was not for the faint of heart - a hard case that seemed to be mocking me with its firm exterior. But, as I carefully peeled back the skin, I was rewarded with a sweet and creamy pulp that was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. The flavor was both perfumey and nutty, with a hint of cherry cola that left me wondering if I had just stumbled upon the secret to a lychee martini. Papaya, which came next, proved to be another acquired taste - its smoky, buttery flavor was unlike anything I had experienced before.

But then, I encountered the ultimate tropical fruit connoisseur's delight: papaya from Southern Mexico and Central America. Sweet, creamy, and smooth, this papaya was a true standout in my book. Its texture was like nothing I had ever felt before - almost as if it were made of silk. The seeds, which I initially avoided, proved to be edible and even possessed a peppery flavor that added depth to the fruit's already complex taste profile.

Next up was a tiny, unassuming fruit that turned out to be one of my new favorites: lychee. Its bumpy exterior belied its sweet, tart pulp - a true delight that left me wanting more. The texture was both surprising and delightful, with a hint of cherry cola that added to the fruit's already unique flavor profile. I couldn't help but wonder if lychee martinis were truly divine.

As I continued my journey through the world of tropical fruits, I found myself face-to-face with another exotic delicacy: dragon fruit. Unfortunately, its taste was not quite as impressive as I had hoped - a bit bland and unremarkable, it failed to leave a lasting impression on my palate. But hey, at least it gave me something new to try!

And finally, after what felt like an eternity of trying fruits, came the mango - the ultimate tropical fruit connoisseur's delight. Sweet, juicy, and utterly divine, this mango was the perfect ending to my fruit-filled adventure. Its taste was both familiar and exotic, with a hint of warmth that left me feeling cozy and content.

As I reflect on my journey through these seven tropical fruits, I am reminded of just how complex and diverse the world of food can be. From the pungent aroma of a certain small fruit to the sweet, creamy pulp of papaya, each of these fruits has its own unique charm and flavor profile. While some were more acquired tastes than others, every single one left me feeling enlightened and eager for more.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensorry i got coconut water on my lens do i say my name in this now you do okay uh brad leone right oh that's it right hey guys i'm brad leone and this is taste buds today we'll be trying seven different types of tropical fruit with my guest aisha curry aisha thank you for joining you know i don't know where you grew up but i grew up in new jersey and tropical fruits were never you know certainly weren't growing in my backyard i grew up in toronto canada but my family background were jamaican and so i am pretty well versed in tropical fruit but i don't want to i kind of don't want to get ahead of myself there's some big boxes here that you've sent me hopefully we'll have some familiar friends and then maybe make some new ones i'm so excited we're gonna roll with number one let's do it let's open it up it sucks coconut oh it's a coconut coconut southeast asia nutty and sweet hard and hairy exterior but now it's all making sense why i have goggles and a hammer i'll put a little demo no pressure brad i have a uh a cleaver it seems like oh my god oh don't be intimidated let's see here oh one more crack and you can see it just starts to like crack yeah opens up nice little halves can i just hammer it yeah hammer it oh god you're doing it i would hold it really i did it yes oh look at you're just going to town there look at all that water this is amazing i got this yeah you do i believe in you oh nice moves careful make me a little nervous oh my god fresh coconut meat not that i'm mr coconut by any means but like if you open up one of these and there's no water and things look a little weird like throw it away let's face it this thing didn't come from brooklyn you know it came from somewhere far away and who knows where it's at or for how long right so like they're not all just good looks like we're in good shape yes and it's delicious i'm eating some more oh you dove right in yeah let me get a little piece oh yeah i feel healthier and rejuvenated already growing up i didn't care too much for coconut but i think it's because my family ate so much of it but now i have an appreciation for it the water itself is way more fragrant i mean that smells like sweet coconut candy yeah well cool well that was fun should we uh plow on to number two so much fun yes number two number two yes i think this might be one of my favorites oh you know what this is i think so it's dragon fruit nope oh i don't know what it is guano africa mild and sweet hard and horn-like spiked exterior it's also called a african horn melon african horn this is so cool juicy oh my god it's green whoa again who was the first person that was like yeah you know what getting a little hungry this weird alien egg is might just be yeah it looks cosmic for sure it kind of smells like cucumber a little bit like cucumber and a mixture of i almost get like unripe banana yeah i smell that and you said cucumber which is interesting because i was reading a little bit about it and they were saying the seeds inside are very comparable to the cucumber so i don't think i've ever had this before i've never had this before yeah and the seeds are edible in case you were wondering you already ate them it's fine i was just going for it you can tell that it's high in vitamin c like right off the bat it does kind of have a little bit of a kiwi flavor super sour acidic i'm just curious why it has so many seeds i thought you'd never ask you know it's probably just um really eager to reproduce at the end of the day that's what a fruit is right we're eating the the the reproductive organs of the plant i almost want to make like a type of booze out of this african horn melon uh wine come on pretty good a little salty i'm into that oh that sounds great actually let me clean this mess up we'll move on to number three oh before you open it let's get back on the guessing game okay i think this is what i thought the last thing was nailed it let's open it that's my guess anyway oh yeah for sure yeah kind of a funky one to be able to hide behind brown paper dragon fruit the americas sweet and mildly acidic leather-like skin scaly spiked exterior what a crazy world we live in this is like nuts looking i i love these well i think there's a few different types too i mean i i've seen them where they're red inside i think they get white inside oh you got a red one nice oh god i hope mine is too oh you have a white one yeah that's great i'm glad we got different ones oh so look at that so my spoon just goes right in it like ice cream oh my god oh my goodness mine's pretty good yum this is great mine isn't that ripe to the nose like does it not smell like root vegetables to you i don't want to say peppery but like there's like an undertone like bitterness to it it's probably the seeds this purple one like this you could probably use this as natural dye it's staining everything like beet juice huh yeah it's like oh wow that's how you know it's good for you and they grow on a cactus because i was like does this thing grow in a tree or some kind of weird vine what that makes so much more sense now like you're trying to tell me this came off of a a giant flower of a cactus that's like the only thing now that i think this thing could possibly grow on i know we're only at number three but that might have been my favorite so far mine too hands down well let's move on number four it's a mango it's a mango mango india tart smooth and round exterior i know there's a bunch of different varieties uh but they kind of grow in all over in that warm there's like a mango belt but it's funny i used to be on the national mango board stop it there's like atar ufo mangoes there's julie mangoes this one is the more classic makeup i can't remember the name and this is how i send it to my kids at school they love it where you just cut like the big lobes and then score it and then pop it inside out and it's like a little you know you're in the mango board you know what i'm talking about or like in the islands what they do is they literally just bite it and bite the skin off and like peel it back like a banana oh that's what that's what i'm talking about that's how i like it it's so ripe it's so delicious it smells so good it makes my mouth like salivate a little and it also i can almost like taste the fibers the texture is smooth and creamy mine's really good it's mine's not definitely not as ripe as as yours is this might be the best mango i've ever had stop it i'm not even i made sure that happened i told him don't you she was on the mango board don't you go sending her no subpar mango how'd you get into the mango board my background of being my family being from the islands and it being really and truly like one of my favorite fruits in the whole wide world the opportunity presented itself specifically in the oakland community uh educate the kids on like nutrition and healthy eating and how it can be fun and delicious and you can get your nutrients at the same time from something like a mango i love mangoes i wish we could stay in mango world all day but should we move forward to number five yes i'm really nervous oh yeah number five the big boy oh my god oh my god if it's a severed head i'm going to be very upset oh oh be careful i i feel this is a it's a little sharp on the hands is this breadfruit no pretty good guess this is the fun the elusive the got a bad reputation duran fruit oh i've never tried that before dorian borneo and sumatra savory sweet and creamy hard and spiky exterior so i i pronounced it uh duran it's durian durian yeah look at this thing oh my god imagine this was like 10 feet in the air like i'm never walking under a tropical tree again ever it looks like a porcupine or something it looks like something that came out of like a sci-fi movie or the ocean and it's known for being like a very uh strong in odor i mean it smells like tea a little tea is yours no but as i get closer it maybe smells like post-workout armpits let's try opening it up it might seem like it's like an impenetrable like crazy fruit but apparently in those little divides and those little um crevices it's pretty soft and easy to kind of run a knife through and then you want to just kind of try to oh god it smells it does it smells so bad oh mine stinks like sulfur sulfur or eating this look at that ready ah but hold on let it let it let it off gas a little bit let it breathe underneath it it kind of smells like sweet candy i'm not ready to eat this are you that face did not say so this is a small one that we opened oh oh god oh no and this is what the fruit looks inside it's almost like a really large soft scramble kind of egg curd with a big pit inside it much more desirable on the nose when they're small it seems okay i'm gonna lick it oh my god you're so much braver no shut that right down oh you know what the flesh it's sweet i can kind of see what's going on there i feel like if you can get past the smell it does have a really nice creamy texture and that the actual fruit pulp that's on the inside is sweet but i definitely think it's something that's an acquired taste that's for sure oh big time like bread fruit's a little more mild and approachable and this is like similar but just like hard to eat all right cool let me get rid of it let's get out of that stink down there and then move into number six oh here we go i love papaya papaya southern mexico and central america sweet and creamy with a smooth and oblong exterior so i feel like it's one of those things a lot of people really like it's either team papaya or baby diapers it's a hard case oh yeah so like sorry i guess you didn't uh you're clearly not on the papaya board baby diaper baby diaper so it's like cilantro like you either like it or you don't exactly i usually just cut it uh uh longitude wise the the high end to the bottom and very large i know the seeds are edible and kind of have like a little bit of like a bitter peppery kind of flavor to them not really my i don't really dabble with them much the seeds are edible correct that's that's amazing i'm gonna try it look at that it's like another world nice custardy flavor sweet almost like cantaloupe but like in a different way you know but more pungent i really love papaya oh my goodness i know a lot of cultures and folks use papaya as like a meat tenderizer because it has an enzyme in it it's like papaya in or something but like it acts as an enzyme that really breaks breaks down tough tissue and connective tissues and stuff we're in the process of uh finishing the development on our sweet july skincare line and it's all based on jamaican ingredients and we actually have a lot of papaya in the in the products because of the enzymes that they're like a natural exfoliator that makes sense if you ever want to slough off dead skin let's get into the last but hopefully not least number seven let's do it tiny okay all right yeah i got a couple in here it's another of my favorite things lychee chyna sweet and tart with a soft and bumpy exterior and how did you pronounce that i say lychee i know a lot of people say lychee but growing up we just called it lychee peeling them is so satisfying yes it is now that i peeled it it's almost like a like a skinned grape in a weird way do you just kind of is there seeds in there there's a big dark seed in the middle it must be it's a fruit okay they're good right oh wow there's a lot going on there the texture the flavor like that's delicious very perfumey almost like lavendery such a cool little fruit yeah they're fun oh are they fun great for the kids the texture is nuts on these it almost has like a little bit of a like as i'm continuing to eat them like a dark like a like a cherry cola kind of flavor to it have you ever had a lychee martini i have not it sounds a little sweet for me but the lychee martini is god's gift to to man this was a blast i hope you had a good time uh trying seven different tropical fruits what was your favorite the mango and i know that's like the most common of the tropical fruits but it just reigned supreme to me and then second would be the papaya and third the lychees and i think the one that really that i really haven't had a ton of and the last time i did it wasn't that good was the dragon fruit today it was like it was delightful i really enjoyed it i can see why people really do like it well thank you again hope you enjoyed yourself thank you yeah i swear i think it starts with it's like atkins it's like a atkins mango or something atkins i thought it was watson's but it's atkins yes you're right bam that never happened oh complete success\n"