I like my watermelon cold, as well as all melons. I guess it's what I grew up with.

Other than that I generally like my fruit room temperature. I think they have more flavor. But then, I'm the crazy lady who likes my white wines to be cool, but not cold.

Oh, but then there is the fruit picked and eaten right off the tree... sunkissed and warm.

I prefer fruit to be at room temperature. The only fruit that I eat cold is watermelon.

Also, I do not like cold cheese. Now that I think about it, I don’t care for cold nor carbonated drinks.

I do like ice cream, though.

eta Oh, I do like ice cold butter, sliced on cream crackers. My butter is kept on the counter so I rarely have really cold butter.

Plus, someone just mentioned eating frozen blueberries, and in context it sounded like eating them still frozen. I like frozen fruit of any kind in popsicles, ice cream, etc., but not just straight frozen. Except peas. Frozen peas, which are technically legumes, but grow in pods on vines which means they could be fruit if they tried hard enough. Frozen petit poid are fantastic. And frozen peach/frangipani tart is great, too, but the peaches are cooked.

I, too, like most fruit cold, though many are just as good either chilled or room temp. I like watermelon better cold, but room temp cantaloupe is good, but I want it to match if there's something in it, so room temp cantaloupe on its own, but chilled if it has cottage cheese or some other cold thing in it. Honeydew is better cold, but okay room temp. Other melons can similarly go either way, but winter squash are much better hot or room temp than cold, whereas summer squash are best hot+cooked or cold+raw. Or room temp pickled. Chilled cucumbers.

Stone fruit eat juicier room temp but tastier cold. Apples and pears are good at any temperature including hot. Citrus is better cold but okay room temp. Grapes have to be cold, but hold their cold well. I don't like frozen grapes to eat, though they're okay as funky ice. Bananas have to be room temp, unless they're made into something like chocolate covered and frozen, or bananas foster and hot.

Avocados are best really cold, but also fine at just chilled up to slightly warm (i.e., warmed from a sandwich or something), but nasty hot. Okay frozen, but that "chocolate ice cream" made from avocadoes is gross. Tomatoes are good at any temperature if they're good tomatoes.

Lychee, rambutan, etc., are best room temp, right out of the husk.

Also, I like room temperature pickled onions and heavy dark beers.

I've always eaten figs right off the tree, and so I do like them to be room temperature. Apples can be room temperature or chilled, but I prefer them chilled.

I'm not fond of peaches and pretty much only eat them in ice cream, and so they would be cold.

Plums and plucots I can eat room temp or cold, and I guess I do not have a preference for those.

I like mamey to be room temperature, but I prefer it in ice cream or in a licuado. I also like cherimoya and guanabana to be chilled or in ice cream or a licuado. With cherimoya, I generally just freeze the fruit and then make it into a sorbet, but it tastes like ice cream.

I like mangoes to be cold.

Grapes can be cold or room temp, and I don't really have a preference, and I feel the same way about cherries.

I do not like chilled dates - they must be room temperature.

Speaking of beer, when I was at university, a pen pal I had in Germany came to visit me and stayed at my house in Houston one September. I took him to a pizza restaurant, and he ordered a beer, requesting that it be room temperature. The waitress brought him the warmest beer she had, but she served it in a frozen mug, and when she poured the beer into the mug, frozen beer floated up to the top. My friend Rainer went into shock - he had never seen such a thing. However, in Houston (and Texas in general), people like their beer as cold as possible, and the weather in September in Houston was stiflingly hot. A few days later, however, we had a hurricane, and so that was another adventure.

Lars, most people in Alberta like their beer ice cold, winter or summer. Many use beer coolers/ cases as seats when they are ice fishing.

My father always kept his beer and pickles in the cupboard.

I just thought about my mother. She always served us our breakfast cereal with hot milk. Not just porridge and Shredded Wheat but Cheerios and Alpha-Bits and Rice Krispies!

Room temp for all fruit except watermelon.

I can't imagine chilling any fruit except watermelon. Perhaps it's because you live in a hot climate!!! I think chilling numbs the flavour.

I don't eat much fruit - mostly because I live in New England and it's very difficult to find good/ripe peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, mangos or melons here, which would be my favorites. I would prefer them room temperature. Apples and pears are reliable and available - I prefer pears room temp, apples either way.

As far as beer, I like it cold - but was taught by my British BIL to drink Newcastle Brown Ale warm and it's the only way I like it.

I prefer chilled, except bananas and grapes.

IC, maybe it's the varieties! I have apricots just now, and they were kind of flavorless, but chilling brought out the apricottiness. All stone fruit, down to cherries are like that here, but they're also carried a distance. Maybe they're bred for more flavor cold?

I used to freeze grapes to give to the kids in the summer. Frozen grapes are pretty good. It started out as just a novelty instead of popsicles.

I prefer all my fruit chilled. I will eat things like bananas room temperature but I do not ever remember buying a banana. I don't hate them but don't love them enough to pick some up. I like my cherries, grapes,melons of all kinds,apples,pears,plums and peaches chilled. I will eat peaches and plums at room temp too. I guess its a habit. When I get fruit home, I process it. That is, washed, pitted or pulled off stems or cut up and put in the fridge for easy grabbing. I buy pineapple already cut up and so that must be chilled. I'm not fighting a pineapple.

I like smoothies and acai bowls. I've been buying frozen blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. Bonus: there's no pressure to use them up before they spoil. Melons I like chilled. ♥

I like just about everything room temp, except foods like soup or ice cream. (And I like cold soups to be room temp.) When I buy a bottle of water at the news stand, I skip the fridge and always ask for one that's not cold.

I tend to eat all fruit except melons at room temperature. Melons I prefer cold.

In VietNam it is common to have beer served at room temperature, though some restaurants refrigerate it. However, in the heat a bottle does not stay cold for long. At one restaurant, DH asked for an ice bucket to keep his in until he finished it. The waiter obliged, but he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever been asked for as he had a little chortle every time he passed our table.

Most fruits like peaches, bananas and apples I keep at room temp. I prefer oranges and grapefruit chilled but not ice cold. I keep strawberries, all melons, grapes, pineapple and anything else in the refrigerator to avoid spoilage, so those are eaten cold or cool, and i prefer them that way.

I learned that fresh strawberries benefit and stay fresh longer from a vinegar and water wash immediately after I get them home. I then spread them on paper towels to air dry and return to a couple of open containers for storage in the refrigerator, covered by a paper towel.

I prefer all of my fruit chilled.

I'll second the frozen grapes. They make a wonderful sweet treat on a hot summer evening. It does sort-of numb their flavor, but they're still really good - and so much better for me than a bowl of ice cream!

Love warm figs right off the plant.

I'm in the "fruit at room temperature" camp.

As a general rule I like my fruit chilled. Obviously something like bananas would be an exception.Grapes, yes, frozen!

Can I just dispel this myth about the Brits and their notorious ’warm’ beer? OK, it isn't freezing cold, but nor is it room temperature. And it definitely should not be warm. It should served at cellar temperature ie 50 - 55f. If you have beer with flavour you don't want to kill it by freezing your taste buds.

As for fruit..... room temperature, except watermelon. Sun warmed for strawberries and peaches is even better.

Floral, “warm” is a relative term. We’re used to beer from the fidge, which is 40° or lower. Or from the cooler, which has it closer to 32°. 50-55° would definitely be considered warm by local standards.

I like my beer at 29F just above the point that it turns to slush. It's a fine line.

Most fruit I like at room temp except melons and grapes.

Bananas at room temp, everything else cold. But not frozen, unless it's in ice cream which then no longer counts as eating fruit. :) Grapes in particular must be cold and very crisp. Unless they're in the form of red wine, then slightly below room temp is fine. :)

Floral, thanks for chiming in about British beer. i drank a good bit of beer during my work trips there and never had a problem with adjusting to the beers there. in fact, i enjoyed them very much since there was virtually no carbonation. Fell in love with Guinness and a few others I dont recall, but they were great.

Another great treat for kids is frozen cranberries rolled in sugar. They are so pretty and the kids can do it themselves. My niece lets her kids do this every Christmas and they eat a lot of them during the process.

As mentioned at the top, as someone who always prefers fruit of any kind at or near room temperature, I think some of the European commenters (Islay and floral) have highlighted an important consideration that some seem to pass over. Namely, eating or drinking anything that's too cold not only dims the flavors of what's being consumed but also can numb taste buds. That's my reason. Comments like "I always" or "my beer is kept at.." describe habits. Do people prefer their habits? Sure. Does that mean they've tried other approaches before deciding on their practices with flavor enjoyment a priority? No

Beer in Britain - yes, the prevailing temperatures will seem "warm" to an Ami who keeps beer on the verge of freezing. And for good reason - the kegs in pubs (where many, many drink) have historically not been refrigerated, but kept in cool cellars under the public rooms. And, also typically not dispensed with CO2 but rather pumped out of the keg manually, the spigot on the edge of the bar counter or behind it being a pump handle. So they're less carbonated, also a plus. Thus the phrase to pull a beer or pull a pint. I'll have a bitter, please.

If your idea of a beer is Miller or Bud Light or any of the other mass market commercial brands, then the temperature doesn't matter, you're really just drinking cold water. There's very little flavor there to either enjoy or to miss.

I prefer fruit at room temp, ditto for water. Offhand the only thing I like cold (other than ice cream) is beer.

I keep beer (varieties selected for flavor, which I will drink one or at max two bottles on a day I'm consuming beer) in the fridge but let them sit out for 10 minutes before opening and pouring into a room temperature glass.

I forgot to mention to lars about his experience with Rainier. I suspect he wanted room temperature beer because he didn't want it to be too cold. Germans and others on the continent seem to drink beer at cooler temps than in the UK but not as cold as here.

I've never seen frozen beer glasses in Europe, a region where delicious beer is far more a part of their culture than here. It's unlikely what floated to the top in Ranier's glass was frozen beer (not enough time for that to happen). More likely it was water in ice form that the beer liquid separated from the sides of the frosty glass when poured in. A beer aficionado would no sooner find it acceptable to put water into a glass of beer than would someone who enjoys wine find doing the same to be acceptable, I suspect he was reacting to that.

Banana is about the only fruit I prefer at room temp, all the others can be chilled but never frozen. Nothing better than an ice cold watermelon on a Hot afternoon.

Team room temperature here -- including watermelon.

I don't care for really cold drinks. I guess old Italian beliefs prevail -- ice cold is bad for your digestion.

Beer very cold and most fruits cold.

VERY COLD beer ALWAYS ;-)

Bananas room temp and not too ripe.

I think most other fruit, either way.

Room temperature for everything, but I don't mind cold watermelon, cantaloupe or grapes and cherries. Either way, doesn't matter to me. When I buy a watermelon, I eat it at room temperature, but since I can't eat a whole one, I cut it up in chunks and put it in the refrigerator, and eat the rest chilled.

Most fruits are fine to me either cold or room temperature. The outliers are bananas & avocados, best at room temperature, and grapefruit & watermelon, best cold. I only buy watermelon when it is super hot out, and I use it to hydrate and chill down.

Beer should be below 40 degrees... again, this is something that I generally only consume when it is super hot outside. And no, I don't care for Bud!

I like water best either ice cold, or hot... not really at room temperature, although I will have some that way.

You can buy half of a watermelon here, but still that's more than I can eat at one time.

When I do buy watermelon (which is rare), I always eat some of it at room temperature first, and that is when it tastes the best. The flavor of watermelon is somewhat subtle, and when it is chilled those subtleties are lost.

A lot of fruit has fragrance that a lot of people miss. For instance, fresh passion fruit has an intense fragrance, which survives even when made into a sorbet, but passion fruit juice has none of this fragrance left in it. I had a passion vine in Venice that would produce 60 to 80 fruits a day, and so I had to buy a juicer to take advantage. Not much juice in a passion fruit, when when you have 60 at a time, it is significant. Since I could not drink it all at once, I made sorbet, and this kept very well in the freezer for several weeks, which was as long as it lasted.

Pineapple has an intense fragrance when it is fresh, and I have grown pineapple just so that I can take better advantage of this. Still, the pineapples that I have grown are not as good as the ones that I have had in the tropics.

I tend to eat mostly tropical fruit, with the exception of figs and dates.

Hmmmm I am going to be an outlier here. Sort of. I really only like watermelon when the weather is hot and the melon is chilled. Other melons can be either way - I like the flavor of them more than watermelon. Apples, pears, citrus and bananas are usually kept at room temperature. Stone fruit I don’t usually have around - unless I find or am given local peaches. My grandmother made a fresh peach pie that was amazing - a very short crisp crust, chilled cut up peaches and a lot of whipped cream.

I like frozen fruit or at least berries - added to dishes where they half thaw. Or made into sorbet. I have fond memories of chocolate covered frozen bananas at a local flea market. Also I got ’paid’ as a kid for helping my mom pick fruit for making jams (which I dislike) with a certain percentage to play with... which went into popsicles, pies or just got eaten semifrozen.