Saturday, October 17, 2009

What color is a passion fruit?


If you can buy fresh passion fruit in your local supermarket, what color is it? And what shape and size? Large, smooth and yellow, or small, wrinkled, and dark purple? The answer to this question most likely depends on the country in which you are shopping, or if you are buying imported fruit, which country produced the passionfruit. There are two distinctive varieties of the edible passion fruit; one is bright yellow, about the size of a small grapefruit, glossy and smooth, and quite light for its size. The other is much smaller, typically about the size of a large lemon, dark purple, less glossy, and often wrinkled in appearance. Here in Brazil, only the yellow variety is available, and in Australia the purple variety is the one that is consumed. I've tasted both varieties and can't distinguish one from the other by taste or aroma. According to botanical sources, however, the two colors are separate species, occur in distinct geographical territores, and bloom at different times of day.

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