On a trip to the extensive Berkeley Bowl supermarket [1], I came across a variety of fruit I'd never seen before, white sapote. A store grocer stocking produce nearby was so convinced I'd love this mystery fruit that he cut one open on the spot for me to try. After I commented that it was remarkably sweet, he told me that the fruit I'd sampled wasn't even fully ripe yet. At $4 a pop, it was definitely pricey, but he was right: I loved it so much that I wound up bringing some home with me. To learn more about this fruit and how it tastes, .

Native to Mexico, the white sapote is a tropical fruit in the citrus family. Although it was introduced to the United States 200 years ago by Spanish monks [2], the fruit still remains relatively unknown in America, where it's occasionally grown as a backyard fruit tree [3] and commercially harvested in certain regions of Florida and California.

The white sapote reminded me of another tropical fruit, the cherimoya [4], because both have notes of pear, vanilla, guava, and banana. Its off-white flesh was sweet, creamy, and custardy, and reminded me of a favorite dessert, flan — with a slight grittiness in texture that one might find in a pear or guava. Although I enjoyed the fruit alone, I would love to try it as an addition to a simple salad or blended in a smoothie.

My only complaint? The tropical specimen is extremely soft when ripe, making it a mess to eat (watch out for the one to five inedible seeds that you may encounter in the center!). Have you ever had white sapotes? How do you enjoy them?