Mango Mania: How the American Mango Lost its Flavor—and How it Might Just Get it Back (encore)

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mangoes inspire passion, particularly in India, which is home to hundreds of varieties of the fruit. They are celebrated in Indian music, poetry, and art; they are mentioned in Hindu and Buddhist religious texts as well as the Kama Sutra; and Indian expats will even pay hundreds of dollars for a single, air-freighted box of their favorite variety. But while the average red-skinned mango in the American grocery store is certainly pretty, they're disappointingly bland and crunchy. This episode, we embark on a mango quest to discover how a mango should taste, why the American mango lost its flavor, and how it might just get it back. This is a story that involves a dentist from New Jersey, George W. Bush, and some Harley Davidsons, as well as a full-on mango orgy—so listen in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Gastropod listeners!
0:03.8	It's still the beginning of 2022.
0:05.8	I still am not sure how it's 2022, but whatever.
0:09.2	Today, we have an encore presentation for you.
0:12.0	We of course are Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science
0:15.1	and history.
0:16.1	I'm Cynthia Graber, and I'm Nicola Twilly, and for your listening pleasure, we have one
0:20.8	of our absolute favorite episodes ever.
0:24.1	Although, of course, we love them all equally.
0:26.8	But really, this one is awesome!
0:28.6	In it, we get to taste some of the most delicious mangoes ever, and discover what in the
0:34.4	world George W. Bush and a trade deal involving Harley Davidson's had to do with getting Americans
0:39.7	access to some of them.
0:41.1	Listen and enjoy, we'll be back soon.
0:43.7	I imagine I had a pretty similar mango related upbringing to most people in the US.
0:51.0	I thought that they were good.
0:52.8	I thought that the mangoes I was eating were basically what mangoes were.
0:57.8	This is Miles Carb, he's a food journalist, and a few years ago, he had a big mango breakthrough.
1:04.5	And he realized, American mango suck.
1:07.1	The generic American supermarket mango is quite frankly a pitiful thing.
1:12.7	It's almost crunchy.
1:14.3	Like a mango should not be crunchy.
	...

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