SOURSOP

Common Name: Soursop
Vernacular Names: Sour sop, Guanabana, Soursap;
Botanical Name: Annona muricata
Specimens From: Malaysia

Soursop, a native fruit from the West Indies, Central America, down to Brazil and it is a common fruit in tropical Asia nowadays. This fruit can be round, oval or irregular heart shaped. Some cultivars are huge, almost the size of a watermelon. It is dark green when unripe, as shown on the first photo, and will turn yellowish-green and slightly soft when it matures. Black blotches will start to appear and that indicates over-ripes.

As the name says it all, it is sour. As a rough guide, it is about 80% sour with 20% sweetness. Soursop is extremely juicy and seedy, hence it is quite a messy fruit to eat. The skin may look leathery but it tears easily. Just cut it like you would cut a watermelon. The interior texture may not look nice but the taste is refreshing and flavorful.

If you don't want it to mess up the whole place, pull off the inedible skin and the center soft core and put the creamy, fibrous pulp onto a big bowl. Use a fork and spoon to dig out the numerous, black toxic seeds and there you have a nice dessert with all its juice retain in a bowl.

Alternatively, since this fruit is juicy, you can juice it and drink it on its own. But if you find it too sour to your liking, blend it with milk and it will taste just nice, yummy! There are several uses of this fruit as it can be processed into ice cream or sorbet and also in cooking, though it is not common.

Soursop is also known as "western durian" among the Chinese community, mainly because of the soft spikes on the skin that look similar to the durian. But it is totally unrelated, as in fruit family classifications, and tastes totally different too.


Fruit: Soursop ; Annona muricata ; Annonaceae.


Other fruits in the same family: Atemoya , Sugar Apple[red rind] , Sugar Apple[green rind].


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