The taste and sweetness can vary from seedling to seedling a lot. Its best to find a parent Surinam Cherry that is sweet tasting.

My experinces are that the surinam cherry varies in its taste from pretty lousy to just ok. Not in the same league tastewise as the traditional northern cherry. The closest tasting tropical fruit I have found to northern cherry is the grumichima (Brazilian Cherry) which when you have a good one is right up there in quality with any cherry.

Disclaimer - neither the Surinam Cherry nor the Grumichima are related to Cherries they just look and taste like they are.

The ones I've tried tasted sort of like sweet peppers in the past. Currently I have seedlings for surinam black cherry, which I've read is sweeter and better tasting.

Surinam cherries grow wild here and are common to find as hedges. If they are crunchy then they are not ripe yet. The should be somewhat soft to the touch. We do find very sweet wild ones but they do vary from tree to tree. I also suspect the volume of rain in advance of picking may dilute the sugars also. Let them get really soft and juice a bunch to really appreciate their flavour and nutritional content.

I enjoy Surinam cherries,
I've had the orange, red and black varieties, many of them seedlings. A friend of mine has a red fruited seedling that to me is excellent. His is bright red, crunchy, sour fruit (in a cherry kind of way) that has a clean finish. He also has a named cv. (#369?) that is a black fruited variety, it is also good but has a resinous aftertaste. The orange fruited varieties I've tried were good but milder than red or black.

For me it is worth growing for food and because they are beautiful and hardy plants that require very little attention. I have a seedling I'll put your name on Newgen for next time we get together.

-Ethan

I never heard of black. Interesting. People use surinam cherries so much as hedges here I was surprised to see one as a tree in someone's yard. Left alone, they will go sku high. Cut back they remain short bushy and neat.