Ask Lemmy

They are supposed to be a little sweet and not completely bland. It could be possible that yours wasn't fully ripe, maybe.

You need the red ones with the purple flesh, not the pink with white flesh. The red have much more flavor

They only taste good when eaten close to where they grow. Probably within hours or very few days of picking them ripe from the plant.

The Taste is 100% different.

Surprisingly this is also a bit the case with bananas. But the export bananas at least taste ok in their different way. Exported Dragonfuit however taste like nothing and are only bought to look exotic but definitely not worth the taste.

I've had a couple of bland ones, and I've had a couple of really sweet ones. It's kind of a toss-up. Kind of like strawberries, some of them are really sweet, others can be tart.

When I had one at home I was disappointed, when I had one in Thailand I was only disappointed about the ones back home.

They only ripen while attached to the cactus. Best is when the scales/tentacles turn slightly brown. Once you pick it the flavor can only degrade. Grocery stores always have them picked too soon because the outside looks better but it will guaranteed taste like dirt.

But even optimally ripe, at best it's just a big kiwi with different colour and not even very different texture. Some ever so slight difference between colours but I doubt most people could tell. I had red with white inside, red with red inside, and yellow with white inside. The yellow exterior is a different shape too.

Source: jumped through MAD hoops to grow them in a tent indoors. They all died after the second harvest but the ones that never fruited in the bay window are still going.

It's alright, but hardly worth the price, IMO. It's too expensive to eat on its own, and its flavor is too weak to really go with anything else.

When they are ripe, especially the red skin/red flesh ones or the yellow skin ones, are really good. Problem is most of them sold in the US are very mediocre and tasteless. (Tbh that's true for most fruits, peaches or melons or most fruit I find here are in the supermarket are terribly bland).

I get the better tasting ripe ones in Asian grocers or in Chinatown, I usually follow and ask Asian aunties and grandmas, they know where the best stuff is. But red skin/white flesh is usually disappointing unless you are really lucky, so try the others.

Dragonfruit is delicious, but this depends heavily on where you get it. Most non-tropical markets get imported dragonfruit that was picked too early and shipped/stored over long periods, resulting a relatively bland taste and drier texture. Ripe, fresh dragonfruit is lovely. It’s in my top 5 fruits personally.

Their taste is subtle/bland for me, but not similar to kiwi. Only the texture is vaguely similar.

(I have a few dragonfruit plants at home, grown from the seed, but... just because I like cactuses. They need to get huge before producing fruits.)

Not the red ones but I like yellow dragon fruit

Dragonfruit lemonade (agua de pitahaya) is delicious!

Yes!

They're fine, it's basically a bigger and watered down kiwi

The similarities easily put it in my top 5

What "taste"? 🤣

I’d say it looks more exciting than it tastes.

Outside of dragon fruit flavored foods, I have no experience, but it is on my list of exotic* fruits to try one day.

*exotic for where I live

It’s ok. My son is a big fan but he has a sweet tooth and dragonfruit is nothing if not super sweet. To me it’s kind of bland otherwise.

At least the ones Ive tried, they dont taste like much. I guess thats the problem with delicate fruit thats imported from another country. They can never pick them at peak ripeness, they gotta pick em earlier so they dont rot on the trip.

I like the taste, but I don't like the price.

Taste-wise, they taste like pretty much all the cactus fruits I've tried so far. There's not a whole lot of flavor to them, just a balanced sweetness (when they're ripe), but not overwhelming sweetness. At least in my part of the world, prickly pears are more cost effective and very similar in terms of taste, but for some reason, less often available.

To me, one of the appeals of cactus fruits is the texture from the slight crunchiness of the seeds, which is a good balance to the consistency of the fruit. Also nice that there's typically not a lot of tartness or bitterness. I like tartness and bitterness in some fruits, but these are a nice change of pace.

Overall, if they were cheap, I'd be eating them a lot more. These epiphytic cacti are fairly easy to grow and bloom as house plants, even in temperate climates, so if you do really enjoy them, it's something you could potentially grow yourself. And obviously if you live in a tropical to subtropical climate, you can probably get away with growing them outdoors.

I've only had it in juice form and it's okay... It tastes the same to me as melted red Jell-O. I won't go out of my way for it or nothin', but I'm not gonna turn it down if offered, either.

The inside of the fruit looks like it should taste like cookies and cream, tho.

The only time I've had it was when a driver brought my department a pallet of it and we were told to take as much as we want. What little flavor it had was good. I'd like to try it closer to wherever it grows sometime.

The ones I ate in Thailand were delicious and very refreshing

You need to get them in countries that grow them. They are a little sweet and very juicy.

I had no idea that they look like Oreo cookie ice cream on the inside! Now I really want to try one.

Is the red with purple flesh 'dragon fruit" just prickly pear fruit? Tuna? Those are sometimes quite good here. I've never bought anything labeled as dragon fruit because the value proposition doesn't work. But if it tastes like the tuna fruit (such a funny name) then I am sure it's good if ripe but shipped unripe.

Its fine. It tastes like under ripe lychee.

Depends. Though when it is ripe, it's delicious.

I grow them myself and they taste pretty good.

You're too used to super sugar desserts. There is a taste, it's just not a knock you over taste.