Mango is the most delicious and luscious of fruits and considered king of fruits. This year we are blessed to have enjoyed mangoes in abundance. It’s the mango season now, and we have been going bananas over Mangos;)….

Mango is a tropical, golden yellow fruit with hues of green, and red from the magnifera indica tree. The fruit is the sweet fleshy part eaten after removing the skin. The fruit also has a pit which has to be removed.

Our mango zeal has been spanning multiple continents this year, and our fervor seems difficult to stop… I am just hoping the season will end before I add unlimited calories from sugar because of this desirably sweet fruit;)

 In spite of the misconception that in the United States we are deprived of Mangoes; every summer during the mango season we do eat mangoes in United States too;  Indian mangoes  are sold in Indian stores and imported mangoes from Latin America  are sold in American groceries.

Our mango madness started off this year when our Texas grocery store, HEB, was flooded by varieties of sweet Mexican mangoes. In U.S. a couple of varieties  we ate are  ‘Atulfo’ mangoes(  which taste like Indian Alphonso), ‘Kent’, and ‘Tommy Atkins’. This year the fruit has not only been very sweet, but well priced and in plenty 😉

To continue this mango craze, we landed in India, the country native for Mangoes. In just a few days here, we have already tasted many varieties and breeds of mangoes. Eaten them, slurped them, drank them, cubed mango with dollop of vanilla ice cream on top, mango smoothie, mango lassi, mango salsa ….….  and devoured in many ways and forms.

 There are many breeds and varieties of mangos available in India, and more new breeds are created by cross breeding and grafting. The famous mango varities in India are Alphonso,   Banganapalli/ Benishaan,  Kesar,  Langra, Dasheri  Rajpuri, Neelam, Mulghoba, Chausa, Himayaat, Imam pasand, Sindori, Rumanui, Bangalura, and more.

 While Amrapali, Malaika rasalu, Chinna rasalu, Charaku rasalu, and pedda rasalu,  are varieties of mangos popular for making juice, aamras( thick mango sauce to eat with puris) or slurping the pulp in juice form. Totapari is a breed of mangos eaten in unripe form after sprinkling salt and red chilli  pepper.

  In our trip to Hyderabad, India, we were lucky to have eaten many varieties and enjoyed characteristic tastes  and flavors of each breed of mangoes.  In Hyderabad, I ate all the popular ones like Benishaan Banganpalli, Himayat, Imamam Pasand,  Mulghoba and  Sundari which were all sweet and delicious and unique  in their own way. My other favorite kind of mangoes  are the juicy ones like Rasalu.

But our mango passion doesn’t end here; we have been eating mangoes in other forms too. Like raw mangoes – Kairi which have been made into  pickles and  chutneys; drinking a Hyderabadi summer drink made from raw mangoes called Aaam Panna; eating Raw mango Pulihara- a yellow rice and raw mango casserole, amd more. Recipes will follow soon 😉

And lastly I have to say if you haven’t eaten a mango, I highly recommend it. It has the sweet taste of paradise on earth.

You can see our mango mania has crossed borders, boundaries and sugar levels, and if the enthusiasm seems overflowing, it’s just that I am on a sugar high;)