How to Pick & Ripen the Perfect Alphonso Mango

We sell a lot of mangoes through the summer. Carnarvon Kensington Pride from December, the first honey golds in early January, and (when the air-freight cooperates) alphonsos from India for a tiny three-week window in February. Every season the same questions come up at the counter.

Here’s what we tell people.

At the counter: what to look for

A good mango is heavy for its size. That’s the single most reliable signal: heavier means more flesh and less air pocket. Pick two and you’ll feel it.

Colour is misleading. Different varieties ripen to different colours. A Kensington Pride goes from green to a yellow-orange blush. A honey gold ripens to a deep gold. An alphonso stays mostly yellow with a hint of red at the shoulder. Don’t reject a mango for being too green if it feels heavy and gives slightly when you press the cheek (the broad flat side, not the stem end).

Smell at the stem end. A ripe-but-not-overripe mango will smell faintly floral and tropical. If it smells fermented or sour it’s gone too far.

Avoid mangoes with sap stains, soft mushy spots, or shrivelled skin around the stem. A few black freckles on the skin are fine; they don’t go through to the flesh.

At home: where it goes wrong

The most common mistake is putting an unripe mango straight into the fridge. Cold stops the ripening process completely, and once it’s stopped, it doesn’t restart properly. The mango will go from hard to soft without ever getting sweet.

Rule: room temperature until ripe, fridge after.

To check ripeness, gently press the broad side. A ripe mango gives like a peach: yields a few millimetres without resistance. If it’s still rock-hard, give it another day. If your thumb sinks in, eat it tonight.

The brown-paper-bag trick (it works)

Mangoes ripen on a hormone called ethylene, which they release themselves. Trapping the gas around the fruit speeds things up.

Put the unripe mangoes in a paper bag (not plastic; plastic traps moisture and they rot). Add an apple or a banana to the bag if you want to speed it up further; both produce a lot of ethylene. Close the bag loosely. Check after 24 hours and again at 48.

This works for any climacteric fruit: pears, peaches, avocados, kiwi. Same trick.

Once it’s ripe

Eat it within two days at room temp, or move it to the fridge where it’ll hold for another four. The flesh stops developing flavour in the cold but doesn’t go bad.

To cut: stand the mango on its narrow end, slice down either side of the flat seed. You’ll have two cheeks. Score a grid into each cheek without cutting through the skin, then push the skin inside-out. Best fruit-eating engineering ever invented.

When to come and ask for help

If you’ve got a function tomorrow and need ripe mangoes today, phone us. We keep a small ripening tray out the back specifically for this. We can usually have a tray of perfectly-ripe mangoes ready for you on a few hours’ notice during the season.