# Do you know what passionfruit tastes like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984 "2015-09-20T18:03:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/1 "2015-09-20T18:03:45Z")
Yesterday, I spotted passionfruit at my local grocery store, making it the 3rd time I’ve ever seen it in the US since I moved here 9 years ago. I don’t know why passionfruit is almost entirely unknown in the US, it’s a great fruit and it seems like it would be fairly easy to commercially grow or import. Mangos, papayas, lychees and other tropical fruit are ubiquitous in the US, just not passionfruit for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/2 "2015-09-20T18:23:45Z")
I’m Canadian, and I’ve eaten fresh passionfruit on vacation in the Dominican Republic. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/3 "2015-09-20T18:37:21Z")
I live in the US, but I ate fresh passion fruit when I was in Tahiti. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/4 "2015-09-20T18:45:09Z")
I live a part of each year in Colombia (the Caribbean coast), where it’s called _maracuya_, (the larger yellow kind, that look something like lemons), and when there, I have it daily, using it to make juice. It’s my favorite fruit juice, and I make it myself, buying the fruit from the corner fruteria. > [@Shalmanese](#): > > Yesterday, I spotted passionfruit at my local grocery store, making it the 3rd time I’ve ever seen it in the US since I moved here 9 years ago. I don’t know why passionfruit is almost entirely unknown in the US. . . . It’s not unknown at all. You can always find an Arizona Iced Tea or whatever that has at least one flavor that is a mixture with “passion fruit.” Or they claim to put in shampoo, or something. Americans love the idea of “passion fruit” as an additive to certain products, even though 95% wouldn’t recognize one if they saw it. However, I know what you mean regarding the fresh fruit itself. I can’t believe you’ve even found it in the Bay Area. (Is it the purple kind?) I’ve been trying to find it in L.A. with zero success, and I’m not sure why. (The only thing I can find is the pulp, which is sold frozen in certain markets which import goods from Latin America. This is definitely a poor substitute for the fresh fruit, though.) Maybe it doesn’t transport well, but I say, if they can get grapes from Chile to California, why not maracuya from Colombia? Maybe it just doesn’t transport well, or maybe there just isn’t enough market. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/5 "2015-09-20T18:49:41Z")
I’m in the US and I’ve seen it regularly in some grocery stores, but I’ve never tried it. The closest I’ve come are flavored foods/drinks, which are pretty common, or a yogurt that had some mixed in along with the seeds. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/6 "2015-09-20T19:07:48Z")
Passion fruit (the species Passiflora incarnata, or Maypop) actually does grow in the US, as far north as the Great Lakes. We used to have a volunteer vine growing in our backyard when I was a kid in PA. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/7 "2015-09-20T20:00:34Z")
Huh, my local Kroger gets passionfruit fairly often, and I live in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi. I had no idea there were places in the US where it was really hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/8 "2015-09-20T20:37:35Z")
Our housekeeper in Uganda made passionfruit juice for us on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/9 "2015-09-20T22:23:25Z")
I have a litre of passion fruit juice in my fridge, along with papaya, guava, orange, and cherry juice. I also have jugs of grape (Concord and white), apple, grapefruit, cranberry, and tomato juice stored away. We like juice here! :o ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/10 "2015-09-20T23:57:05Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Mangos, papayas, lychees and other tropical fruit are ubiquitous in the US, just not passionfruit for some reason. Lychees are ubiquitous? I think I’ve seen them once in my life. Mangos and papayas are somewhat common, but not something like apples or oranges that I can count on every grocery store having. Not sure I’ve ever seen fresh passionfruit, but plenty of passionfruit juice and passionfruit-flavored things. Would anyone other than the OP describe Lychees as “ubiquitous”? Because if they are, I’m gonna start bugging my grocers to get them. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/11 "2015-09-20T23:57:33Z")
In this video a [passion fruit farmer in California suggests that one reason they don’t sell so well is the way they look when they are at their best stage of ripening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhywG5GQ1Rk). He’s right: a good _maracuya_ often [looks pretty ugly](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=911&q=ripe+passion+fruit&oq=ripe+passion+fruit&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i5i30j0i8i30j0i24.3362.11289.0.11541.36.22.9.5.0.0.265.2465.0j19j1.20.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..11.25.2161.j5vOfzr0Tu0#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=maracuya+colombia&imgrc=jVi5DjwlFKYd1M%3A) compared to how fruits are usually presented. It will be “wrinkled,” and most Americans I suppose will assume that it’s bad. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/12 "2015-09-21T00:02:14Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Would anyone other than the OP describe Lychees as “ubiquitous”? . . . Well, they are for me, but I live in Thaitown (East Hollywood). In fact, they’re on sale right now at the corner market, where there’s a big table piled with bags filled with lychees. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/13 "2015-09-21T00:22:55Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Lychees are ubiquitous? I think I’ve seen them once in my life. FWIW, they have lychee juice at supermarkets here in Toronto (Canada). Never looked for the actual nuts (fruit?) myself, though. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/14 "2015-09-21T00:28:46Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, they are for me, but I live in Thaitown (East Hollywood). In fact, they’re on sale right now at the corner market, where there’s a big table piled with bags filled with lychees. I wouldn’t call them “ubiquitous” around here, but they are not something I have to go halfway around town to find, either. They are less common, in my experience, than mango or papaya, but nowhere near as uncommon as something like quince (which I can rarely find around here) or dragonfruit. Maybe somewhere around pomegranate, or slightly more popular, in terms of availability. (But I’m fairly sure my local grocery a quarter mile away carries them. It’s just that the availability is variable.) ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/15 "2015-09-21T00:51:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > but nowhere near as uncommon as something like quince (which I can rarely find around here) or dragonfruit. Maybe somewhere around pomegranate, or slightly more popular, in terms of availability. Weird. Quince was everywhere last spring around here; I never bought one, but I’d stand over the bin in the produce section smelling them because they were THAT GOOD. Even dragonfruit I’ve seen several times. Pomegranates are almost always around. But lychee… once, at the local co-op, maybe 4 years ago. Never at a standard grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/16 "2015-09-21T01:38:35Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Weird. Quince was everywhere last spring around here; I never bought one, but I’d stand over the bin in the produce section smelling them because they were THAT GOOD. Even dragonfruit I’ve seen several times. Pomegranates are almost always around. > > But lychee… once, at the local co-op, maybe 4 years ago. Never at a standard grocery store. I’m sure it depends on the ethnic composition of the neighborhood. I live in a very Mexican area, so tropical fruits are fairly ubiquitous. But pomegranate, even though it is used in some Mexican cooking, appears not to be that common. But I can find green or red cactus fruits (tunas/xoconistles) pretty much at any grocery within a couple miles of my house. And several varieties of mango. But quince? Not so much. Hell, even beets I sometimes have to find grocery stores that cater more towards the Polish/Central European community. I have an easier time finding jicama, malanga, and manioc in my general area than beets or horseradish or kohlrabi most of the time. Quince is something I see for maybe a week or two at the local grocery. I’m not even entirely sure who buys it. I know it mostly for its use in jam and it also makes quite a delicious fruit brandy when distilled. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/17 "2015-09-21T02:10:31Z")
Of course, now that I just went to the store to pick up some stuff, I see they are today knee-deep in pomegranates, as well as beets (I actually think I was mistaken about the beets, but I have been there a few times when I couldn’t find them.) And this happens to be one of the weeks where quince is available (looking into it a bit more, I guess it is used in Mexican cooking a bit). And lychees are out. But there’s plenty of soursop (gunabana), starfruit, mamey, and guyaba/guava. And squash blossoms, too! No passionfruit, but it’s one of those fruits that does show up from time to time there. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/18 "2015-09-21T03:51:52Z")
I actually started a similar [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=737192) about a year ago. It was inspired by the fact that I went years living in the US without ever having any, after spending my childhood in Australia where passionfruit is very common. I get passionfruit from my local farmers’ market here in San Diego. In fact, i have some in my fridge right now. After buying them, i cut them open and scoop the centers out into a jar, and i then put four or five teaspoons of passionfruit with my Greek yogurt and strawberries for breakfast. Local supermarkets sometime stock passionfruit, but usually at ridiculous prices. At the local farmers’ market, they’re usually around $3-4 a pound, which works out at maybe 30-50c each, depending on their weight. In supermarkets, i’ve seen them sold for as high as $24/lb, or sometimes individually at up to $2.00 apiece. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/19 "2015-09-21T05:04:27Z")
I share a board fence with a neighbor who has a passion fruit plant on his side, and there are a plethora of fruits swelling in my back yard right now. There were only a couple last year, and I didn’t take any action with them. I really ought to learn how to harvest and eat them. But maybe ask him if he wants them, first. That said, I have had P_O_G, back when I lived in Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984/20 "2015-09-21T05:48:25Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > That said, I have had P_O_G, back when I lived in Hawaii. I made some pog just this morning. I heard about it for the first time on \*\*\*Millionaire \*\*\*this past Friday. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-passionfruit-tastes-like/731984.md?page=2)