There’s nothing worse than purchasing a melon and being disappointed. Your perfectly shaped fruit turn out to taste like wet cardboard. This isn’t necessarily a trait of the variety itself. More likely, you’ve been misled by appearances into thinking you know something about what lies within.
What lies within is chemistry; sweetness isn’t magic. It’s math. This is broken down on the chart above (in the form of Brix, or the measure of dissolved sugars in the juice). Think of it as a kind of scorecard for sweetness: the higher the Brix number, the more sugar there are suspended in the water.
How to Choose a Sweet Melon
If you look at two muskmelons rated at eleven degrees Brix, then another rated at sixteen, you’re looking at a very different fruit. Not subtly so. This is the distance between dessert and refreshing snack. Once you understand the scale, shopping become much less guesswork; it’s about choosing what you want to eat, rather than what you think you’ll get.
Not all melons aim for the same sweetness level. Some are created to be intensely sugary, some to be slightly sweet and crisp. For example, the Sprite melon frequently comes in at high end… Sixteen degrees or higher, which makes it one of those top varieties along with Canary and Galia. Those are the melons for when you’re craving something that’s rich and sticky and sort of honeyed on your tongue.
At the other extreme, watermelons generally comes in lower, in the range of maybe 11 degrees. Not that they’re bad. They’re just refreshingly unrich. And understanding that will help you set your expectations. When eating a watermelon, you don’t measure it different than how good a honeydew tastes.
But that’s only part of the story. The other half is time. Sugar doesn’t magically arrive at harvest time. As fruit hangs on the vine, it gradually picks up sweetness. See for yourself with this visual guide tracking sugar levels from fruit set until days leading up to full ripeness.
That’s what makes early picking such an easy error: farms must ship their fruits, so melons is frequently picked when they’re still hard enough to survive the journey. Although it protects them from getting banged around, it deprives the melon of its sugar. Early-picked melon may be edible, even delicious…but never at its best.
You’ve got to weigh flavor versus practicality. If given the choice, go for vine-ripened fruits. Those last few days before stem detaches are key to building up sugar. You should of chosen them.
There’s also a big caveat: Growing conditions. As the chart shows, Brix levels increases with full sun and cool nights. Limiting water around harvest will stress the plant a bit, forcing the sugars to concentrate. That’s why homegrown melons tend to be tastier than their store-bought counterparts. With no truck schedule to worry about, the farmer can wait for that ideal sweet spot.
When growing your own, don’t rush things at harvest time; let fruit mature completely. It’ll be worth the wait when it comes to flavor.
At the end of the day, when you buy a melon, you’re making a decision: Do I want my sweetness to come mostly from moisture and a subtle crunch? Or do I want something with more spoon-ability (and sweetness)? Look at those high-Brix varieties (the ones that register on the chart) for this second option; the lower-Brix melons will be your perfect hydrating-crunchy companion.
Follow the map in the infographic. Then choose your desired destination: Do you want to travel to Sweetness Town or Hydration City? Either way, you’ll need to make your pick next time you find yourself standing in front of a wall of fruit in the produce aisle.
Know the number behind the rind. Pay attention to the signals of full ripeness. And trust that sugars takes their sweet time accumulating. Hopefully now, you can find a melon that tastes just as good as it looks.