Hi Andrew:

I first tried Rollinia while taking a Sub-Tropical Fruit Culture Class back about 15 years ago. We were taught that the name of the fruit, depending upon which botanist you asked, was Rollinia mucosa or Annnoa mucosa. In either case, the common nickname was "snot fruit." You might imagine that the name was a bit of a turn off before the tasting began. The fruit we had was large and was really unremarkable in its flavor.....I would say insipid fairly described it. It had a rather gelatinous texture. I was not impressed to say the least. Over the years, I have had other fruits from time to time.....again nothing to write home about. I now understand that they have changed the name to the more positive name of Rollinia deliciosa and they prefer to use the Brazilian common name of Biriba. Anyway, about 2 or 3 years ago, I went to one of our fruit tastings and two guests, whom I never met before, brought Rollinias from their yard. Well.....one was pretty darned good and the other was even better. The best one tasted to me like a very rich and creamy lemon yogurt. Just the right balance of sweet and tart. I have since planted two seedling trees out. One died in a flood and the other is growing nicely and I am expecting fruit next year. I'll let you know how this one turns out. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Harry

hi Harry, does the flavor resemble the fruits of the anonna family? In that case, I would be extremely pleased once my tree bears fruit. I don't know anyone who's had one of these. I wish I could buy the fruit, but it's almost non existent even online.

June

June:

The annona family has a very wide range of flavors and flesh consistencies. This would range from the starchy banana like flavor of Asimina (paw paw) to the cottony textured tropical flavor of guanabana (sour sop). If by annona family you mean sugar apple, atemoya, custard apple or cherimoya....I would say that the flavors are somewhat different. The flesh of these latter annonas tend to be more sweet and less sub-acid. They also have, to a greater or lesser extent, a less gelatinous texture to the flesh. I wish I had some to send you but my tree has not set any fruit as of yet. It is difficult to convey the exact flavor comparison. The good rollinias, at least in my opinion, have a texure and flavor of a nice sweet lemon creme yogurt.

Harry

Had my first experience with this fruit recently while in PR. It lived up to it's nick name for sure. The texture to me was nauseating. The flavor of this fruit was not very good. In all fairness to the fruit in general, this was probably not a very good representative. It had some potential flavor-wise. I don't think I could ever get past it's texture though.

I got right past the texture and enjoyed it.

What does it say about me that I like something called snot fruit?

Rollinias can be very variable, some people swear its the best flavor anona.

It would be hard for me to imagine that anyone who has tried the best of all of the annonas would choose rollinia as their favorite. It would be like choosing lemon yogurt over the finest vanilla gourmet ice cream. But, I guess there may be someone out there that hates fine vanilla ice cream.

Harry

The one rollinia I tried was very bland flavored, the texture wasn't bad though. I will be trying more in the future, hopefully better ones.

-Ethan

My tree has produced for the first time this year. I like it a lot- I just squish it out of the skin and eat it as I walk around the yard. I like it better than guanabana and my sugar apples.

Harry's lemon yogurt description is dead on. I think they are absolutely delicious (lemon yogurt is my favorite ;-). However, there appear to be at least 2 different types - small ones that are very productive but aren't quite as good as the less productive bigger ones. The small ones seemed to be more slimy than the bigger ones. The big ones are better tasting and not quite as 'snotty' but don't seem to produce more than 10 or so fruits a year here.

thanks for the description Harry. I have a very vague memory of the annona's since I was very young when I had them. The texture was different for sure, but there is a distinct floral aroma that I remember they all (2-3 types) had in different degrees. I wish someone could send me a rollinia, too. I'd pay an arm and a leg to try one.

Thanks folks! I have 22 different types of tropical fruit trees in my yard and four different types of annonas which are my favorite! I have been debating about rollinia
for a while now. Maybe I might grab a graftling.

I was lucky enough to try some rollinia in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago and they were very good. Lemon yogurt is a pretty good description. Some rollinia are deliciosa some are mucosa, just find the right one. I think the fruits that look more like soursop are better compared to the ones that look like cherimoya.

-Ethan

I think in rollinias, the two main distinctions are Caribbean and Amazonian genetics?

Joe, a good jak can be something amazing.

-Ethan

Where can I buy this plant? How soon plant from seeds bear fruits? Will it survive central Florida weather? Thanks