Not a fan of the papaya

[Sharon in Colorado]

Got a conventional Mexican papaya the other day, had some tonight with lime juice.

I still can't get used to the flavor. Just has a musky pungent flavor that I really don't enjoy.

I have to wonder if it's because I'm here in snowy blizzardy Colorado and it was once in a tropical land, and maybe it was just picked under-ripe, shot up with chemicals and shipped here and that is why it tastes like it does.

Has anyone tasted a fresh picked one? Is there a big difference?

[mongomango]

I've never been able to enjoy one either. I've never had fresh, but I can't imagine the difference in taste being so striking that I'd like the taste. I have found though that if I force myself to eat fruits that I don't like that after a while I develop a taste for them. Just haven't had the inclination yet to do so with papaya..but it does have some stellar attributes.

[Princess Elaine]

OH me, oh my!!!! I LOVE THEM!!!...I'm in So. Ca. and eat them often...actually have to put some on a time out so I don't burn out ....sometimes I eat them cut into little squares...sometimes I put them in the blender...may add strawberries but I like the taste as is.....ummmmmmmmmmmm, it's gotta be that they're just not adapting to being shipped.

Mangos are plentiful, too!!!...I like to eat those when no ones' around...I stick a fork in one end...and by the time I get to the pit...that's when I'm glad I'm alone...very messy slurp'n....

Elaine

[Rawkinlocs]

I don't like 'em either :( When I cut it open, had this weird, "burnt" kinda smell...maybe Sharon's description of "musky" is a better term, though.

I've had two varieties on several occasions. One of them was better than the other but I can't remember if the "okay" one was the large one or the little one. So, I don't even bother buying them anymore. I wish they had the same flavor as the papaya enzymes and the papaya punch I used to drink years ago...but it's very different.

[trinity082482]

I dont like it either. It reminds me of eating Pine tasting flowers :o

[Pailani]

I don't like papayas, either the giant ones or the smaller ones. They taste like they wish they were cantaloupe, but they're not, and I love cantaloupe.

[Rawkinlocs]

I don't like papayas, either the giant ones or the smaller ones. They taste like they wish they were cantaloupe, but they're not, and I love cantaloupe.
LOL! Good one Leslie! Yeah, musky, burnt-smelling canteloupe-wannabes is a good description. Maybe a freshly picked one straight from the tree might be better...but don't know when I'll ever have the pleasure of finding THAT out! But like you, I LOVE canteloupe too!

[trinity082482]

I love cantaloupe.

Me too. :o

[Cinnamon]

I love papaya but it really depends on the individual fruit. Sometimes in the middle of summer I can a few really good ones but that is about it. Maybe as mentioned above they are picked green and if we could actually get one fresh and ripe directly from the plant it would be good. Cut up with some lime juice, or in a smoothie... yum! But I only get a few good ones each year!

[Ireland]

I don't care much for them myself. However...throw some fresh cut papaya in a food processor with a little vanilla and some frozen bananas and it's the most wonderful tasting soft serve "ice-cream" ever.

(a little more banana than papaya)

[juliebove]

I have some dried papaya. It's really pretty and while I "can" eat it, it wouldn't be my first choice of food, ever. Fresh papaya though, yuck! Don't like mangoes either or most fruit for that matter. Really the only ones that don't taste bad to me are apples, pears and some berries, preferably freshly picked. Oops! Forgot about grapefruit. I do like those. Like lemons and limes too.

[travelingtoes]

I hate papaya. I did a diet once and it was like papaya and pineapples for many days. I started to detest it. I hated pineapples, too. But I like them now.

[PeachyMama]

The first time I ever tried papya was on a fruit plate I had for breakfast in Mexico.

I could not get past that musky smell. To me, it smelled just like vomit.

[kyrie]

Ladies,

I don't know where you get your papaya from, but I grew up in Jamaica, and let me tell you, even non-organic they are gorgeous. Now of course in Australia, I've had nothing but crap ones, paw paws, papaya, whatever you want to call them, blech!!!!:(

They taste nothing whatsoever like the ones I had growing up which were bought from the supermarket, and devoured blissfully, but then neither does the ginger or the mint or the lemon grass, but I can live with it. I can't get guavas like from off the tree in Jamaica, but as I said I can live with it!

I can't get french thyme here either, nor cinnamon leaves, so... oh well. :(

So y'all need to book yourself a ticket to somewhere nice and sunny where you can actually pick papaya straight from the tree!!! Yes, I am being a cheeky monkey, but it's true! ;)

Having picked papaya straight from the tree and direct to my plate, including limes, cherries, oranges, coconuts, pink grapefruits, soursops, plantains, mangoes, guavas, mandarins, etc. I can definitely recommend the experience.

Good luck :p
Happy Trails.
Carla.

[DavidZaneMason]

Here in South Florida they are often imported from Belize and other places. You are correct that many varieties have a musty / cheesy smell. The fruit certainly needs to be adequately ripe. Even then, it is very sweet....with a distinctive flavor (not a strong one usually) that only some folks prefer.

-Papaya has strong and beneficial digestive enzymes....as does very ripe papaya. Many of the tropical fruits are very cleansing in their action (really gets things moving! Ha! ha!).

-There are many fruits...and you should go with the ones you love! They'll love you back! ;)

-David Z. Mason

[Ariannah]

Papayas for me have been an acquired taste, definitely. I don't seek them out, (lucky for me, they are so expensive) but I don't hate them.

I have had them in blended drinks before though, and like them that way, but I try to shy away from foods of which I have to alter the taste to like them. If I have to "do" stuff to it, then I don't want to fuss with it.

Yeah, I am a lazy raw foodist. I want the raw food to be edible as is :)

[RawNomad]

I don't like Mexican papayas -- the kind you find in most "regular" grocery stores. I like the varieties that are found in Asian grocery stores. They're much bigger and meatier. An average size weighs about 5 lbs.

Here's the thing about papayas (and this applies only to the Asian varieties). They need to be underripe (yellowish green) when you take them home from the store. Then you leave them on the countertop for a few days until they get really, really, ripe. Sometimes the skin gets a little moldy -- that's normal. They need to be ripe before you cut them open. The papaya is at its best only at that stage. If you cut it open too soon, you get that strong, musky smell and the flavor is either bland of bitter. Leave it out too long and it rots on you. It's a very temperamental fruit.

One of these days, I'm going to post video clips on how to crack open a durian and how to peel (not cube) a mango or a ripe papaya.

[tvillemom]

I tried one big papaya and never had another. I had the same "taste", like they were trying to taste like cantelope, but didn't :o Funny, but not! Oh well, there are plenty of other things....I like mangos...which look the same, only smaller!
Wendi

[VibinOnLife!]

I don't like them either. I grew up drinking what I thought was papaya juice, so I was really excited to try the real thing. A raw friend of mine told me to eat the seeds along with the fruit because it gives it a peppery flavor. Needless to say, I couldn't swallow the first bite. I'm sorry, but papaya is horrid! I did promise myself that one day I would start sampling blending them with other fruits just so that I don't miss out on the benefits. Haven't worked up the nerve yet though. :(

[sungoddess]

I eat the ones from the Caribbean (caribbean reds) that they sell in Whole Foods... the first time BLECH. NOW I AM OBSESSED. I eat at least one huge papaya a day....

[Sharon in Colorado]

Wow - all the responses!

Rawkinlocs - ya, musky is the only way I could think to describe it. And I love papaya flavored things, like the enzymes! I even love the dried papaya from the health food store (can't remember if it is sweetened or not)

Everyone here passed up the papaya last night and ate up all the pears (we had pears and papaya for dinner here)...so I stuck the spears in the dehydrator, we'll see what happens!

I think the smaller, and more expensive ones are called Hawaiian Papayas


Pailiani - Yes, cantaloupe! How funny and true! and I love cantaloupe too, it is so sweet and juicy, but papaya, well it's kind of pulpy and thick, doesn't work!

travelingtoes - Sounds like you are referring to the Beverly Hills Diet. My friend and I tried that, raw style, I found the book in a used book store. It's a real interesting diet, all pineapple on day one, all papaya on day 2, etc. It's kind of a neat diet, a lot of mono-mealing.

Julieabove - We are going to have to kidnap you and place you in a room with nothing but fruit! ;) We'll make a fruit lover out of you yet! But you know, when I first tried mango, I didn't like it either, now I love it. I get frustrated when I get a realy pulpy, stringy one. Maybe you just haven't had a nice sweet juicy one yet, because there's a huge difference in them.

This could be like durians, either you love them or hate them, or you just have to eat enough of them to grow on you.

[JinxieKat]

Hmmm.. I love the big papayas, but not by themselves. I adore them blended w/ bananas.. one big papaya to one or two bananas... or with lime squirted on them. Tis good!

Jinx

[JGex]

I loved them the first tiime I tried them..... :p

[hawaiigal]

We love Papayas! we cant get enough of them. We have a huge tree growing near our back door and pick them as soon as they are ripe - they are sweet, juicy and I havent noticed any musty smell - except if they are not ripe. We can also buy them from farmers market at 5 for $1.00. The strawberry ones are definately the best!

[mongomango]

Wow. I guess there really is a huge difference in the taste with fresh and transported. Waah! I want to try a fresh one!!

[mershwista]

Papayas are wonderful, but everyone has different tastes. The fact that it was transported does say something, though. Fresh produce always tastes oodles better : )

I recently learned that of all things, MANGOS one buys in a store are not even RAW...because unless they are labelled "raw organic mangos", it's likely that they were doused in boiling water before transport to keep them from going totally rotten...that's why they have such thick skins as compared to the raw or fresh ones. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[sungoddess]

i had better stop eating mangos :(

[Sharon in Colorado]

We love Papayas! we cant get enough of them. We have a huge tree growing near our back door and pick them as soon as they are ripe - they are sweet, juicy and I havent noticed any musty smell - except if they are not ripe. We can also buy them from farmers market at 5 for $1.00. The strawberry ones are definately the best!

I was hoping you'd chime in! Glad to know they are good from the tree. When in Hawaii...

Mer - I don't think that mangoes are fully cooked. They may have been heat treated on the surface, but they definately do not have a cooked taste, nor do they cause a reaction in my body as cooked does. Plus they wouldn't be shelf stable for very long if they were cooked, they'd have to be contained in a jar or something or they'd go bad.

[mershwista]

No, they're not fully cooked...just, as I said, doused in boiling water. I imagine the insides are all right, though. But you can tell the difference with the skins.

I got this tip off from a raw vegan friend who works in a grocery store...

[PreciousLight]

I did not each much papaya until a few years ago after buying Alissa's book. But now I eat it at least 2 or 3 times a month. I eat it with banana and fresh ginger. It is so full of enzymes. You can see the live bubbles in the pudding.The recipe is in Allisa's book. I find it helps with food that does not digest well in my body too. Using papaya and pineapple seem to be good food digesters for me when I get congested.

[travelingtoes]

travelingtoes - Sounds like you are referring to the Beverly Hills Diet. My friend and I tried that, raw style, I found the book in a used book store. It's a real interesting diet, all pineapple on day one, all papaya on day 2, etc. It's kind of a neat diet, a lot of mono-mealing.


YES, that's the exact diet I was talking about. It is pretty cool, but I love variety of raw instead of just on thing a day. I did that diet a few times.

[madmel]

I used to not like papaya back in Europe. The ones I bought were either too ripe or not ripe at all and smelled as bad as they tasted. Same with mangoes, they were overprices and just not right.

Then I moved to Asia and started buying papayas, mangoes, pomelos and whatnots and I love them ALL. I had a couple of weeks this year were I practically lived on papayas, mangos and pineapple. I ate papaya plain, chopped up in a fruit salad, as a pudding with durian, more plain, with some almond butter, more plain and a lot more :D

I LOVE them.

Now I am here in Europe for the holidays and bought papayas. I am terribly disappointed. They never seem to ripen the way they do in China and either go bad before I eat them or just taste really strange.

The ones I bought were usually imported from Taiwan and Thailand and not as big as the big Mexican ones.

Man, I am sooooo looking forward of going back to my old pawpaws :)

cheers,
madmel

[hawaiigal]

[QUOTE=Sharon in Colorado]I was hoping you'd chime in! Glad to know they are good from the tree. When in Hawaii...

We live at a higher elevation and all my papayas are green right now - but the farmers market is full of them all year round. They are smaller but very sweet and juicy. yummy

[paradise2]

I don't like them, I bought one and it did have the weird taste and smell everyone described. I spent $3 on it and didn't want to waste it so I dried it and then it was edible. :) If I get one again, I'll dehydrate it.

[Sheryl]

In Canada I though papayas were yuck! When I moved to Sydney Australia I had them again... YUCK!

However now that I live 1000 km north of Sydney, where papayas grow well, I love them!

The musky/faint body odour smell I always associated with them is gone and they are just delicious!! I think they don't maintain the flavour travelling and are best eaten at source. The difference is unbelievable. Now I rarely get anything but a magnificent papaya. And babaco... also known as champagne fruit... WOW! (it's a relative of the papaya).

We're buying a house shortly on acreage and papaya will be one of the first things I plant. They bear full fruit within a year and some produce 1000 fruits a year!!!!

If you think you don't like papaya just wait until you are somewhere tropical they grow and try again. You will be happy you did!

Sheryl

[carolg]

Sharon,
It's snowy her also. I love papaya, but has to be soft and mushy outside for me to eat them. I buying them this way. Other day husband bought a hard one, and today I thought it was softening up. It wasn't soft, mushy nor sweet either. I buy them super ripe and almost ready for the trash to most, but for me just right and ripe. I don't usually blend with anything else but peel and eat. I even eat the seeds. Yes, I love seeds.
carolg

[Bobbie]

My mum used to live in Africa and they had a tree in their garden, apparantly the fruit was the size of melons.

I don't particularly like papaya plain but I love it in cake -
a layer of ground walnuts and dates
a layer of sliced banana, papaya, strawberry
a layer of the nut/date
layer of fruit
layer of nut/date
topping made from white nuts blended with water, lemon juice and a couple of dates.
Heavenly!

[learningrawways]

I've tried papayas too, and really enjoyed them this last summer. I made Alyssa's Bannana Papaya pudding--it was good. So I started buying them and eating them. They do remind you of cantalopes only heavier and fill you up more but juicy too. But come fall, I bought another one and opened it up and it wasn't ripe--yuck! I had to throw it away. I've been noticing with the fruit I buy this year that it takes an awful long time till it ripens. I buy bananas and keep smelling them waiting for that sour smell to go away and it never does, I end up peeling them and they're already going bad but still not completely ripe. Same thing happened with the mangos I bought--I eventually threw them away--they never ripened.

[Smileen]

I like that they are not overly sweet. The earthy smell is ok for me.

[Princess Elaine]

...one more thing on papayas (one of my favorite fruits)....is as a facial treatment cut a piece of fruit and rub it on your face,,,,be careful cuz the more unripe the fruit the stronger the enzymes will be....let the fruit soak in not more then 10 minutes before washing....after a treatment your complexion appears youthful , radiant and fresh. this is from one of David Wolfe's books....I also put coconut oil/butter on my face...I can see a difference in just a few days.....

This is great...what I eat can also go on my body

Elaine