Nope, I like all of my fruit ripe verging on over ripe.

LOL Rox.

I don't find ripe bananas taste like nail polish, but when they get even a speck of brown on them they're too ripe for me.

I don't like pears yellow either. I like them crunchy.

My husband likes almost all fruit crunchy; stonefruit, pears, melon, but oddly enough he will eat bananas that I consider way past their prime. So when I buy fruit - I puut half in a bowl on the counter to ripen to what I consider edible and half in the fridge for him to crunch on.

Green mango. Who knew it was a thing. Found out a couple years ago when one came in a veg/fruit box. Ripe fruit can be so cloyingly sweet. We like most fruit crisp, not soft/sweet.

Hard stone fruit?? No, I won't buy them in the store anymore becasue they're so underripe they never soften. I made a peach pie out of hard peaches, because I didn't know how else to make them edible, but even after macerating the slices, and baking, they were still crisp, and not very peachy tasting. As pie they were okay eating, but people assumed they were apple because they were so neutrally sweet (my apple pies are apply, but I get it) and so crunchy.

I do like green bananas, and my favorites are mostly yellow with green edges. Too often this Winter, the bananas in my farm box have been rock hard and never ripening, I know I could treat them like green plantains, but I'm not up for the work and grease, They were refunded and sent to the chickens or compost,

Re ”nail polish” taste, remember that a lot of flavor is olfactory. It's common to say, ”tastes like...” something we smell rather than eat. My first reaction, was that it was probably acetone (nail polish remover) since produce is known for that. Apparently, in bananas, it isn't exactly acetone, but smells like it. From Chemistryislife,com: ”Isoamyl acetate is the key molecule in the bananas scent. While it is not the most abundant compound (as there are many others that play a part in the scent of bananas) it has the most potent smell.”

I like fruit best when it's yeilding and slightly sweet, but neither squishy soft nor full on sugary.

I don't know about 'nail polish' but I remember, as a kid, having to polish my Dad's shoes with Banana Oil. Over-ripe bananas smell like that to me, as do dried bananas.... can't go there.

At last someone is takling about fruit with an acetone taste. For years I’ve asked my family if they think cantelope melon tastes like nail polish remover and have been met with blank stares or ”No”.

My definition of a cantelope is the light brown beige coloured one with the lacey lighter net looking very outer skin. Orange colour insude. It is called various names around the world and even in different suburbs here here???

Here in SoCal, that is the one and only canteloupe. From the USA Centers for Disease Control: ”Acetone is also released naturally by plants, trees, insects, microbes (germs), volcanic erruptions, and forest fires, and can be found naturally in many fruits and vegetables. Low levels of acetone are produced naturally by the human body, and some health conditions can cause these levels to increase.” I don't ever remember getting the acetone flavor/smell from fruit, but I don't do nail polish (other than a brief flirtation decades ago), and the only ones whom I've lived with who did, got manicures, so I may not have had enough exposure to think ”nails” rather than just ”eew.” Maybe your family members also haven't had enough exposure to remover to identify small whiffs.

I can't say I've ever picked up an acetone scent or taste from any food. And yes, never having had a professional manicure - I do my own - I'm familiar with it.

I like my fruit fully ripe. Never overripe. But ripe enough the natural flavors, sweetness, have developed.

DH prefers bananas slightly under ripe. He prefers to pick out his own, not quite trusting me to get it right. If I notice he's out and offer to pick some up, he'll say, Oh, maybe just a couple (meaning until he's had a chance to buy his own) but make sure they are green (like I haven't learned that in the last several decades).

I think that came from the days he would put one in the pocket of his engineers vest and carry it into the woods with him. Ripe, and it was pretty beat up by the time he was stopping to eat it. Under ripe and it at least stayed firm and undented.

The ONLY bananas I'll eat are just under ripe! It's mostly the texture! Ripe bananas.....yuk! And olfactory hallucinations ARE a thing!

Our family has a old friend who restores old cars and a visit to his place sometimes sees him spray painting some bit or other of a car. Acetone is used as car paint thinners so my family would have smelt it at one time or another. I guess it’s just peculiar to me.

Not me, but I have a friend from Senegal who likes green mango, and she uses it in salads. When I lived in Venice (CA) and had a mango tree, I would give her green mangoes from time to time, but I preferred to let them ripen on the tree.

I like fruit to be as sweet as possible, and I do not pick anything green that I grow, except bananas, but I let them ripen after I pick them. When I have a lot of ripe bananas, I dehydrate them.

For general fresh eating (not for cooking), most people want their tomatoes to be just ripe.

I am growing a few paw paw trees. Paw Paw fruits taste not too good until they are ripe. When the fruits are ripe, you have to eat them soon, or they will go overripe in a couple of days.

dcarch

I like underripe bananas too - can't stand them when ripe - unless they're frozen. This only applies to store-bought bananas, tho. The ones I grow don't go all mushy when ripe and are inedible when green. I guess its the mushiness of ripe bananas I dislike most. I hate mushy apples too. I use overripe, mushy fruits for cooking.

I can't think of any other fruit I'd prefer underripe. I like perfectly ripe stone fruits and berries, etc..

Of course there's cucumbers - and green peppers - but I'd rather have red peppers than green.

I believe the interior color of strawberries has more to do with variety than ripeness.

P.S. When bananas are too green, they make my teeth feel really weird.

Another under-ripe banana eater here -- but not too under-ripe. I also like pears slightly under-ripe where they're at the point that they're flavorful but still firm, but I still enjoy them when they're fully ripe = soft.

My dad is an underripe banana eater. And I can get some idea of the taste of something from the smell. For me, bananas have a small window of when I like to eat them. Too ripe and the texture bugs me, too green and it's the taste. Hubs doesn't care, so he rounds up the overripe ones. Otherwise, I relegate them to the freezer for banana muffins or bread. When you do canning, you want a few underripe fruits for the higher pectin content. But they don't have the great taste, so not too many either. Avocados are a fruit we struggle with. If they are not ripe enough, they don't really taste good and have a weird texture, but they go bad pretty fast too, if left too long to ripen. And some of the store bought ones never ripen anyway, just go from too green to black. We've thrown out a lot of avocados. I buy the cheaper ones on sale, and I think they are cheap because they have had some kind of "incident" in transit that interferes with their proper ripening. So in the end, I guess they are no bargain.

Our traditional groceries are designed for the consumers eyes, not optimal temps for various produce. So much food waste when seeing the stock people rolling around 55gallon garbage cans on wheels tossing out floppy greens, moldy berries, etc

I gave up on avocadoes 5-6 years ago wasting money. I was always tempted to cut open an avocado from the Costco bag at my car. --But then i would have to stand in that awful return line. Happened visiting family out of town around that time shopping at a high end NY grocery for unusual veg and fruits and Costco. A big jicama was firm unblemished outside and black/moldy inside. Horrid avocadoes.

Since covid we have been using transfer station shopping. Every two weeks using two separate companies. Once a month each. Produce comes straight from farms and kept in proper temperature for optimal freshness. My last FreshDirect was two weeks ago today and i still have a full crisper...chard, spinach, kale, etc still fresh. So i'm skipping a week.

I've been purchasing 2-6 avocados every two weeks since lockdown. Aways perfect.

Maybe look for firm, dark skin and small. Feeling heavy for their size. The smaller Haas often have tiny pits, so more flesh. Very creamy and not at all mealy.

That said, one thing i have been doing is the typical counter bowl of avocados. Firm. Once the slightest give, they go in the fridge front and center at eye level. Buys us 2-4 days. They continue ripening but slows it down. One out of ten have a little stem end nub. If that flicks off easily with a thumb nail, it is ripe. Only one in a hundred turned a bit brown inside but it had rolled to the back of the fridge hidden for who knows how long.

I want my bananas very brown speckled with not a hint of green.

A supermarket here always has a cart of discount produce items. Just came back with slightly over-ripe bananas. 4 lbs for $1.00.

Over-ripe bananas makes perfect smoothies, ice cream, popsicles etc.

Have you had fried cinnamon ripe bananas?

dcarch

Color doesn't mean much to me when selecting bananas. I can buy green ones that are too ripe. I buy them by feel. They need to just have a bit of give, but not much. I can't stand them if they are soft. I like apples that are crisp and a bit tart and pears crisp or a bit soft and ripe. I've never experienced the acetone smell with fruit, but I think overipe canteloupe is particularly repugnant.

In response to the featured answer - smelling is a big part of tasting, you know. We taste only a few flavors (bitter, sweet, salty, sour), but can smell many more than that.

Makes me recall as a kid, I always could taste Lysol disinfectant spray, the smell was so strong. And I promise I never put that stuff in my mouth!

Carol, I always think that plain boiled potatoes taste like ladybugs. But now that I think about it, they smell like ladybugs. I’ve never eaten a ladybug, that I know of.