Christmas Punch Requires a Formerly Forbidden Fruit

RIP 99¢ Only Stores

They always had tejocote, and at a great price. (Although not always fresh, which is the only way it was ever prohibited.)

Article tldr:

"Authorities were worried that tejocotes could carry highly destructive fruit flies into the States, threatening domestic orchards. Soon, there was a black market for the golden fruits, due to their rarity and the effort it took to bring them over the border."

I'm excited to try these! I love discovering new fruits.

In the same vein -- is there any website that catalogues all the fruits you can buy around the world? That documents all the varieties, together with which countries/states/cities you can find them in?

When I travel, discovering new fruits is one of my favorite parts. Like when I discovered the custard apple [1] in Brazil, it blew my mind.

And it would be really cool to have a list of all the fruits you could buy when you travel to make sure you don't miss any. Or the fact that the article says tejocotes are sold in NYC -- when I've never come across them -- makes me wonder what other fruits are here that I also had no idea?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_squamosa

It's not as uncommon here as tejocotes, but I'm always chuffed to find good looking and not overripe mangosteens at farmers markets or specialty produce suppliers.

They're more common to find at Asian markets, where they often come in mesh bags of a half dozen, but my experience is they're often overripe and their fruit has become slightly translucent and mushy.

You can identify a ripe mangosteen by a rich reddish purple exterior that gives slightly when pressed. If it's darkened to a blackish purple and is very hard to the touch, it is probably over-ripened.

They are very rare at farmer's markets though. Growing them in the USA in most places requires a greenhouse as they need a tropical climate: year round high humidity and a minimum temperature of ~55-60F.

Definitely better than the Victorian explorer who wanted to eat one of every animal