I thought I had purchased the San Felipe mango at the Fairchild Mango Festival in 2010. However, I now think I actually got it at PIN during last year. It was a pretty small tree, but in 2011 it bloomed and set a few fruit. One made it to maturity.

The soletary fruit seemed to be mature size for several weeks but never gave any indication of ripeness interms of having any change in resistance to thumb pressure. However, as the days went on, the vibrant red blush started to turn somewhat muddy with a yellowish cast so I picked it while still very firm before the birds and other varmints got a hold of it. This business of judging the best time to pick a fruit can be quite daunting when you have never had the fruit before and there is only one shot to get it right until next year.

I left the fruit on the counter and it finally started having some give to it when finger pressure was applied. I would have eaten it on Sunday, but because MarinFla was stopping by the office on Monday with one of her monster mangoes, I held off to try it then.

The mango was meaty and fiberless but unfortunately, it had the misfortune of being on the same tasting plate as Marin's really excellent (probable) Keitt, at the peak of ripeness and flavor and also a nicely flavored Maha Chanook which was slightly beyond its perfect ripeness. San Felipe would probably been much more enjoyable if it had been tasted alone. This being the first fruit that I have tried from a tree for which this was the first fruit leaves me to say that that the jury is still out on final evaluations of this mango. Disease resistance and the fact that the critters didn't attack it despite it being low to the ground with a bright red blush is somewhat remarkable if nothing else. In looking at PIN's ratings, they give it a 3 (Good) in the flavor department....so maybe this was a fairly representative tasting. I would say that "good" on a scale of poor, fair, good, very good and excellent accurately describes this mango. However, PIN also says that this is an early season fruit....which this particular one was not. This has been a crazy year for mango seasons. Many early varieties, like Carrie, were carried very late.

Harry