Where I live, far from avocado country, it’s not unusual for organic avocados to be $2.50 or $3 each.
“Oh, waaah, you big crybaby,” locavore purists might argue, “avocados are expensive because you live in Seattle, so stop buying non-local food!”
To which I reply: “The zombies can have my guacamole when they pry it from my salt-covered, tortilla chip-holding fingers.”
In any event, if you are paying $3 for a single avocado, you want that avocado to be freaking perfect: soft but not bruised, fully ripe but not rotten.
But I suspect many avocado lovers have experienced, as I have, the disappointment of slicing into their avo only to find brown streaks or dark, rotten bruising on the inside.
Gross.
Here’s how to make sure that never happens again.
Before you commit to a specific avocado, look for all the external signs of ripe-but-not-rotten. With a Hass avocado (the variety we tend to get on the West coast), the skin should be very dark green-to-black and bumpy. The fruit should feel heavy and firm, with no obvious smooshy parts or flat areas.
Now here’s the trick. Once you’ve got a good candidate, take a sneak-peak at what’s inside. Discreetly flick the dry stem off the fruit.
If you see a brown patch under the stem, put that avocado back. It will be gross inside.
Like this:
But, if the fruit right under the stem is bright avocado yellow-green, you have a winner. Your avocado will be great.
Like this:
This technique has never failed me.
Haas avocados purchased hard and green will ripen nicely on the counter over several days. However, once your avocado hits that black-skinned stage, don’t delay in enjoying it. The difference between a soft and creamy avocado and a brown-streaked, half-rotten one is only a few days on the counter.
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Thanks for the tip. I’ve always gone with how the pointy end feels. If it’s firm it’s ok, but it isn’t fool proof.
I agreed. Last two my purchase of avocado were not enable at all.
Why food and drag administration allow this?
Thanks for the great tip! I love avocados too, but I have had that gross experience too many times.
You have just changed my life! I love avocadoes and the disappointment at cutting open a manky brown one can loom rather large. Yes, that makes me shallow. And yes, I know there are bigger issues in the world but I’m with you as far as loving these amazing delectables. There are essential eating in my world.
I don’t think that makes you shallow. I have had days entirely ruined by rotten avacados, because I don’t have a lot of play money, so I don’t treat myself to one very often, and when I do, I save up so much anticipation for them. Literally this has caused adult temper tantrums in my kitchen. 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Erica for the great tip. I love avocados and it’s so disappointing to get one and then have it be gross inside. Hope to see you at the MENF this weekend!
I’m only a little embarrassed by how excited I am about this tip. I am going to do something I rarely do in writing… give you exclamations points!!…!!!!!…!!!!!!!!!
I couldn’t agree more!! I am now ecstatic to go shopping for my perfect avocados. I will have a smug look all day. Yeah, betcha didn’t know what I do. Lol
I miss my college town where “Watch for Falling Avocados” signs were a common street fixture.
I have to know where this is as I may have to move there!!!!!! 🙂
Great tip! I live in the heart of avo country – and I didn’t know that! Don’t feel too bad about your prices: ..organic avos here generally cost $2.50 each, too:( Fortunately for us, the tree we planted 20 years ago(!) has a decent harvest for the first time ever. (ya really gotta give those babies what they want!)
I’d really love some tips on growing avocados! I can grow them to about 2′ but then they start to die or lose all their leaves.
Great tip, and I love your blog in general.
It is “discreetly,” not “discretely,” for this usage, by the way.
Change made. Thanks for the catch.
Here’s another tip I’ve found: if only eating half the avo , leave the pit in the other half, put in Baggie and store in fridge. Will keep longer.
To keep half, I simply leave stone in place and smear the open surface with lemon juice. It stops it going brown.
I must try this! Thanks.
Thanks for the great tip! I live here in the Pacific NW, too and unfortunately have had way too many avacado tragedies. I’m going shopping today and will try out your tip! Thanks again!
Good tip. As the daughter of a So-Cal avocado farmer, can I put in this plug? Buy California avo’s! They’re sort of local. More than Chilean ones at least 🙂 I also agree that they are essential to life.
Wow! I grew up with my grandparents having an avocado tree in their backyard, yet I never knew that trick. Thanks!
Thank you! Great tip!
Great tip, thanks. Also — avocado aficionados probably already know this one — you can put an unripe avo in a brown paper bag for faster ripening.
This also works for any other fruit.
To be honest, and maybe I’m just not very picky, your first avocado doesn’t look that bad. I’ve seen much worse, like really, really brown and gross. That just looks a little bit mushy around that one edge. I don’t think the taste is that greatly affected either until it gets into the very mushy, brown stage.
If you can get the large, green avocados that are the best. I lived in Florida for 8 years and loved the peak season when everyone’s avocados were ripe and in abundance—but now I’m ‘suffering’ through non-local avocados here in Texas again.
Misti, when I visit Texas I am always so happy to find that HEB has vacuumed packed halved avocados! They are always so pretty and just the right ripeness. Wish we had an HEB here in Tennessee!
Avocados are a miracle fruit to me ever since I found out that avocados don’t ripen on the tree so avocado farmers don’t need big warehouses to store them in to ripen.
Thanks for the tip! I live in the PNW too and I love my avocados. Another tip that I’ve found helpful is to put ripe avocados in the fridge. If you put them in at that just right stage, they stay that way much longer than they would on the counter.
Definitely a good rule of thumb! I personally like to go a step further and buy avocados as hard as rocks–that way they don’t bruise in the bag on the way home.
I agree with Misty. Put them in the fridge just as the get to the perfect stage. They keep unbeliveably longer. Thanks for the tip on buying though, I will def use it.
Yes! Great tip. I do this all the time and it works well for me!
They freeze well, so if it get ripe and you are not ready for it, peel and seed then toss in a ziplock. Freeze. Will last a good long while that way. He do grow “cados” here in Houston, but they are still expensive. I think it doesn’t matter where you are, if that fruit is not in season. We don’t have apples here. They ship them in from your hood and they are not good like they are up in Wash. state. So, you do have your blessings.
I was told by a grower to always buy our avocados with the stem attached. And we do find that they last way longer. We seldom loose one. We also buy when very hard.
I LOVE this tip! And who wouldn’t, if they’ve ever cut into a bad avocado? I must say though, ever since I learned how to make avocado nutella, the word “bad” has been removed from my vocabulary. I now look at each opening as an opportunity for either sweet or savory deliciousness.
I love the tip! I love creamy dreamy avocados too. I wonder if you have ever ordered from Azure Standard? They are based out of Oregon and I will be getting my organic avocados from them for $1.00 each.
Jamie…they grow Avacados in OR? Mine always freeze and die 🙁
Ha Ha @ Dea Lowry, no the food group I order through is based out of Oregon, their organic avocado’s come from California this time of year. http://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/8433/ here is a link to the info on their avocados it won’t show you the price if you do not register but right now they are 3 for $3. How ever they do grow a lot of the fresh items they offer in Dufur, OR by the way I do not work for them I am just an avid supporter of people who try to start something good and make non gmo organic food available for an excellent price to those of us who are interested. I offered this in response to who complaint about paying $2 or $3 each for avocados.
This makes me want to kiss you.
THANK YOU! There’s nothing worse than spending way too much on a GD avocado only to find out that you can’t even eat it. I’m going to test this out ASAP. THANKS again. I’ll be tweeting you.
Nice tip- I’ll try this for sure… but I’d rather have a fuerte!
yum! i rarely buy them, mostly because they’re so expensive (because they don’t grow in nc either…but some other great things do!). they were 49 cents at aldi a couple weeks ago, hard as a rock. i bought four then went back the next day for 10 more! avocado was my main veg and fat source for a nice little while. so good! the last one or two had gone a little long.
has anyone had any luck slowing the ripening? i thought about putting a few in the frig for later ripening. didn’t know how it would work and feared the worst.
Yes, You can slow down ripening by putting unripe ones in the refrigerator. When I pick about ten, I keep 4 out and the rest away then start taking out one a day, for sandwiches and salads or anything.
thank you sunny. i’d seen other references to letting them ripen and then put them in the frig. good to know that it works to put them in the frig before they’re ripe too! makes sense.
They last a good long time in the fridge. I just discovered one that had gotten lost behind something … it must have been in there for *weeks*, and it was still yummy. 🙂
The other thing this technique does is prevent your avocado from “stringing” inside…the strings are from the seed starting to sprout, but removing the stem will prevent it from sprouting. If it’s black then it’s already started to sprout.
I currently live in Central Africa and had an avocado tree in my yard until we moved about 2 months ago.
Wow, I wish I could upvote this… I don’t usually freak out if there’s a bit of brownness on the inside, even if they’re too brown to eat straight you can usually still make guac with them and have it be fine… but the STRINGS. Those bloody strings are the bane of my existence. The whole point of avocados is how creamy they are, having to pick strings out of your teeth ruins the entire effect. I’m going to try these tricks the next time I’m at the grocery.
Why not just give a soft squeeze to test the firmness?
I’m always annoyed when I get to the avocado pile and people have picked off all the stems causing all the avocados they left behind to begin oxidizing from one end. Just wiggle the stem instead of removing it if you must. If it doesn’t wiggle a bit, its not ripe.
Good point Brian!
I was going to ask how picking off the stem affects the avocado and ripening.
We live in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, yes it is Avocado country and for most of the year we buy 10 Avos for $5. If I get to choose them at a roadside stall, I’d would never choose and avo where the stem is removed, they won’t last very long and can be streaky. If you want avos ready to eat test their ripeness by lightly pressing around the area at the stem, if it has a give your avo is ripe. The problem of people pressing the whole avo to see if it is ripe is that it bruises the fruit and it goes brown inside much faster. Thats why I would never buy Avos in a supermarket, cause everbody does their prodding. For those of you who live further away from the avo growing areas, contact the avocado growers direct and order a box full, delivered straight to your door and then us the instruction in this blog to stage the ripening process.
You do realise Karen that every avo lover in America will be emigrating to Bay of Plenty now.!!
Yeah, I was wondering about that when I first read this post and then all through the thread. Specifically, what happens when you are at the grocery store, farmer’s market, or whatever, and you are searching through the bin for the perfect avocado?
What if you can’t find an avo with the little stem tip still attached because everyone ahead of you has removed all of them in their own search for the perfect one? Does removing the stem tip then speed up ripening or oxidation? And, does the test still work if the stem tip was already removed by someone else or in the packing process? In other words, if the stem tip was already removed when you examine it, does the fresh light green color still indicate that it’s still in good shape and the dark color still indicate that the flesh inside has already gone bad?
Thanks for the tip! I love avocado & have always wondered how to avoid this!
Great tip! Definitely going to remember this one next time I buy avocados.
As an aspiring NW gardener, I’m off to check out the rest of your blog!
DUH! Can’t believe 40 yrs in Avocado country and I didn’t figure this out. Thanks.
Great tip! Has anyone else experienced the tragedy of Trader Joes avocados? I have finally given up on trying them. Even if I buy them hard, they “ripen” straight to the rotten, black stage. At no point are they edible. What gives?
Amazing tip! I will stop by my neighbor’s avocado tree first thing in the morning (I live in Kenya and it is Avocado season 🙂
Bless you Bless you Bless you! Wow!
AWESOME!!! Because I have been getting a lot of nasty ones of late. This is great and I will definitely make it a practice.
You’re Hilarious! Thank you for the secret code to being a guacamole whisperer
Brillient tip have wasted so much money in the past
I am with you on Avacados. They are just too good. Thanks for the tips!
Great tip. Thank you so much for sharing!! I have bought my share of bad ones. I have one question. I used to live in Kansas and often I would buy rubbery avos. How do you prevent purchasing those? By the way, I now live over the pass from you in Ellensburg.
Oh wow! Thank you for the tip!! No more yucky avocados for me!
Awesome! Thank you.
I have but one concern with this tip…once the stem is gone, I believe they go bad quickly. Am I wrong about this? I just always protect that stem because that seems to be the case for me. Now I’ll have to do some kitchen science experiments! 🙂
Actually avocados are one of those that you don’t have to buy organic. So don’t waste your money! Save it for those fruits and vegetables that organic is the only way to eat them. Costco has great price on avocados.
Great advice – it’s always an anxious time…avocado purchasing – and then the disappointment when it just plain stinks!
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Brilliant tip! Thanks so much. I agree that there are few things more disappointing than cutting into an avocado and finding it rotten.
Love learning and sharing tips. Do you also know that you can remove that seed by placing the “fruit” on a towel or cutting board and whacking a knife in the seed and then twisting it….the seed lifts right out.
pve
AWESOME tip! As a fellow quac lover, I’m right there with ya– come and take it you zombies!
Thanks for all the great tips. Also, good to know that I’m not alone in experiencing avocados going straight from unripe to rotten. But, when I get to eat one at the exact right moment, there’s nothing like it.
If you find a great buy on them, get them. Toss in ‘fridge; they ripen a lot slower in the ‘fridge.
(My normal prob with them is like bananas, gotta wait a few days after buying to enjoy, rarely are the ones in stores here over ripe)