The Great and Powerful... Dragon Fruit?

            Dragon fruit: A porcupine of a fruit, covered in spiny frills and a vibrant, dark-pink skin. It’s color and shape are something reminiscent of a video game collectable, drawing in the eye. A powerful sounding and looking fruit, but… is it powerful in flavor? This was something I set out to find out in this produce taste-test.

            After some quick research I found that dragon fruit is actually quite the versatile fruit, being able to be used raw or grilled. For the most part, though, the fruit is eaten raw either by itself or in smoothies. It also comes in different varieties: The usual pink-skinned, white fleshed type you’d potentially see in commercials, pink-skinned with magenta-colored flesh, or yellow-skinned with white flesh. For our test, I got the more generic brand of pink-skinned and white-fleshed. My plan for it was fairly simple: I was going to eat it raw and without anything else to get a taste of what the fruit itself had to offer. While making it into a smoothie would have been more interesting, I had never tried dragon fruit on its own, and wanted to experience it for myself.

            Preparing it was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. Taking a sharp kitchen knife, I simply cut it directly in half. Although the pink skin looked like it was going to be tough, it was actually fairly delicate and, strangely, almost rubbery in its feel. The knife slipped through easily enough, and I got a look at the flesh inside. It was almost like looking at cookies and cream ice cream, the white flesh of the fruit dotted with tiny black seeds. Luckily, you’re supposed to eat the fruit with the seeds in it, so that was no issue. Finally, I scooped out the fruit with a spoon. It was very similar to scooping out the flesh of an avocado, and, when I tried to scrape out some just off the top, it was like scooping out ice cream with how easy and smooth it was. All in all, I didn’t find any issues with preparing my fruit. With all the pieces set up, I took my first bite and… was somewhat underwhelmed.

 

            I had tried this fruit with my mom present, and she immediately dismissed the fruit as not having any flavor. For me, however, it had a very strange sweetness to it that I wasn’t expecting. It’s not a very in your face sort of fruit. Rather, it was just sweet enough that you felt it on the back of your tongue. I think that my opinion of this fruit was probably affected by other fruits I had eaten in my life, such as apples and bananas that are far more up front with their flavors. The texture, however, was amazing. It was creamy and almost silky to the point where I didn’t even have to chew. It wasn’t mushy like a banana, but smooth like ice cream on my tongue, with the little black seeds adding texture to it.

            All in all, I was surprised at the small amount of flavor the dragon fruit had, but was interested in the texture it had to offer. It might be something I try in a smoothie, since it’s supposed to be low on calories and high in vitamins, meaning it has a lot of health-uses! There’s even a recipe for a sorbe, which I feel like I have to try! Although, how that goes is for another blog.