the.com/custard apple
A fruit that pretends to be dessert and somehow gets away with it.
means A tropical fruit with a knobbly green skin and soft, sweet, creamy flesh — the name covering several related species like the cherimoya and sugar apple, all prized for a pulp that tastes almost like a ready-made pudding.
from A plainly descriptive English name: 'custard' for the smooth, sweet, custard-like flesh, plus 'apple,' which English speakers have long slapped onto any rounded, unfamiliar fruit (think pineapple or oak-apple). The fruit itself belongs to the genus Annona, a name probably borrowed into Latin from a Taíno or other Caribbean word, and the plants spread from the tropical Americas across the world's warm regions, picking up the cozy English label along the way.
- flavor
- Tastes like vanilla pudding grew on a tree
- toxic seeds
- Crushed seeds were used as insecticide
- texture
- Scoop it with a spoon, custard-style
- ancient fame
- Found carved in ancient Mayan ruins
- many names
- Also called sugar apple or sweetsop
sugar apple — annona squamosa fruit, primary custard apple species grown across india, philippines, and southeast asia
cherimoya — annona cherimola, known as custard apple in some regions, native to ecuador and peru, grows in california
soursop — annona muricata, called custard apple in caribbean islands, commercially grown in jamaica and trinidad