Mmmmmmmmm, passionfruit. Just thinking the name causes me to salivate. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs unwittingly trained to respond to some bell. But I’m not unwitting because this fruit is so truly amazing that it deserves this response, every time. I dearly wish that everyone reading this has already had the utter pleasure of trying this fruit. On the other hand, if you haven’t, you may be in for the best experience of all… to try an amazing flavor for the first time is something to remember, to write poetry about, to tell your grandkids one day…But I digress…
What does passionfruit taste like, you ask? The best ones are a tart yet sweet with a rich, full aroma and flavor of floral-mango-pineapple-orange-sherbert.
I also like Steven Raichlen’s description taken from his book Miami Spice:
“Passion fruit flesh has the tartness of lime juice, the sweetness of honey, the fragrance of jasmine, and a perfumed flavor reminiscent of guava, lychee, and pineapple.”
What baffles me about the lack of access to passionfruit in this country is that it’s a fruit that ships well, very well. It’s light, has a sturdy shell and can be piled up, keeps for a decent period, and looks uniform — we all know how Americans love uniform fruit! It’s also visually appealing: round, glossy and smooth, in a rich deep purple. Yes, we’re judgey and we like our fruit the way we like our models — symmetrical and light but colorful 😝. I joke but this is a real consideration for commercial growers where sometimes a fruits’ appearance is more important than its flavor. And the flavor of passionfruit is well-loved, as evidenced by its ubiquity in everything from yogurt, to granola, to coconut water and cocktails. Yet with all that going for it, it’s usually sold for $3 each here in NYC — ludicrous! Access to them is strangely regional in the US since you can buy them at a reasonable price in Florida. When my husband and I were last in LA, we bought 20 lbs of them (who needs clothes anyway 😜) and hauled them back to NY with us.
Wherever I’ve traveled around the world, I have found them for reasonable prices. The first ones I ever tasted were in Vietnam in 1995 and my cousin pedaled it to me on the basis of it having a lot of vitamin C. It didn’t make a big impression on me then — I only remember it being very sour. Since then, I’ve had it in every country that I’ve visited in Europe, and in every country I’ve been to in Asia, like in Borneo where it’s unbelievably inexpensive. The passionfruit in Costa Rica there were some of the worst ones I’ve ever had — tasting like wet cardboard. We consumed shameful piles of them in Colombia and Brazil. In Israel, we had them daily and once even drizzled generously over a rich dessert.
Once while vacationing in Hawaii with my husband, I kept seeing vines draped thickly over trees by the roadside from which grew long skinny yellowish fruits — like very swollen and jaundiced fingers. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to get him to pull over and pick me some. Upon opening one up I was surprised to see it was full of seed sacs very similar to passionfruit. We debated the wisdom of tasting some unknown exotic fruit while on a remote road on an unfamiliar island, but I was not to be deterred. “It might be amazing!” will probably be my not-so-famous last words, lol; some other time I’ll tell you about my encounter with the apple of death 😳. So, I tasted it (delicious!) and then patiently waited to see if I was going to die of poisoning 🙏. Fortunately, this time my mystery fruit was a species of passionfruit commonly called the banana passionfruit and is quite edible. Unfortunately, this vine is highly invasive on the islands of Hawaii and Kauai where it smothers hundreds of miles of native forest😭.
How did it get here?
Passionfruit is native to the region of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. There are records of the Spanish encountering it in Brazil in the 1500’s. It’s an important crop there to this day since Brazil is the world’s largest passionfruit exporter. It’s now cultivated in many places around the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hawaii, and many other tropical islands.
There are more than 500 species of passionfruit, at least 50 of which are edible. The two main commercial varieties are Passiflora edulis with the purple exterior and P. edulis f. flavicarpa with the yellow exterior. Passionfruit is actually a fruiting vine that has very distinctive flowers. The name is derived from the flowers because 18th-century missionaries in Brazil used the flower’s five anthers as a representation of the crucifixion of Christ. I wonder what the indigenous Brazilians were calling it before it was branded as such.
How to choose and eat them
When selecting your passionfruit, the most important thing is to make sure that it feels heavy in your hand — that indicates how much pulp is inside. It's ok to buy wrinkly ones even though they don’t look as pretty because they’ll be ready to eat. It’s preferable to let them get a little wrinkly before eating because on some occasions when I’ve eaten them very fresh they taste a lot more green than normal. Usually, if they’re very firm and smooth, I’ll let them sit out for a day or two before eating. Eating one is very simple: I like to cut off the top third of the shell and then spoon out the liquid sunshine 😋.
Wishing you happy and successful passionfruit hunting!
Fruitfully yours,
Yen
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