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

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2018

⏱️ 35 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	I imagine I had a pretty similar mango related upbringing to most people in the US.
0:07.6	I thought that they were good.
0:09.4	I thought that the mangoes I was eating were basically what mangoes were.
0:14.3	This is Miles Carp, he's a food journalist and a few years ago he had a big mango breakthrough
0:20.9	and he realized American mango suck.
0:23.6	The generic American supermarket mango is quite frankly a pitiful thing.
0:29.2	It's almost crunchy.
0:30.8	Like a mango should not be crunchy.
0:32.9	It's pretty bland.
0:34.7	It's pretty fibrous.
0:36.1	It's not soft and it's just generally not good.
0:39.6	This does not sound delicious at all, but I've heard about mangoes that can make your
0:43.6	heart sing, sing all about mangoes.
0:46.4	Mango maniacs rave about mangoes.
0:49.2	So where are they hiding all these magical, hermatic, juicy, almost custardy, mangoes
0:55.4	of legend?
0:56.4	And why can't I buy them at the store?
0:58.2	I, in case you've stumbled upon this by accident, I'm Cynthia Graber and you're listening
1:02.3	to Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
1:05.7	And I'm Nicola Twilly and this episode, Cynthia and I, are going on a mango quest.
1:11.1	It involves the dentist in New Jersey, a Colombian horticulturalist in Florida, and mango
1:16.2	orgies in India.
	...

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