The Pepino Melon and Why It's Disgusting

In my quest to try one new fruit a week, I purchased a pepino melon. I don't know that I'd ever even taken notice of this fruit before. It was with the rest of the exotic fruits--papaya, mango, coconut, star fruit--in a little basket on the shelf.

Now, I haven't been researching fruit before I pick it up. I wanted this to be a spontaneous adventure in which I decide on the spot what fruit looks exotic and appealing. This is how I ended up with prickly pear spines in my hand.

So my point is that I had no idea if the pepino melon I bought was in season or even ripe. A little googling after I got it home told me it was indeed ripe and in season by the purple streaks on it's otherwise pale yellow/taupe skin. See.


But when I opened it up, it looked a little greyish by the seeds, which might have indicated that it was bad.


It certainly didn't taste good. The texture was blah. The taste was almost bitter. There was none of that creamy sweetness promised by Wikipedia. An incredible disappointment to add to my fruit experiment. Not even one winner yet. Papaya = bland. Prickly pear = dangerous and weird. Pepino melon = bitter disappointment.

So, boo! to the pepino melon.