Holy crap. This strip’s been up for 800 seconds and it’s already the most controversial thing I’ve ever written, beating out comics about cunnilingus, the Obama endorsement, and my making 4chan tiny on the map of the internet. It turns out everyone and their mother has a fruit opinion, and every one of those opinions is now in my inbox.
Just remember to keep some perspective. If you think watermelon is delicious, and I think it’s only so-so, the important thing is that we each find something we like. Who’s to say whose taste is right?
I am. You are wrong; watermelon is overrated.
Also, I have never liked cantaloupe. It brings down otherwise tasty fruit salads. There, I said it.
xkcd 
Yeah, can’t say I agree with most of it. Cantaloupe is just bad though, no doubt about it. Also, I know all about the coconut thing. Let’s just say throwing them at rocks doesn’t do anything.
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I can open a coconut within the minute, with a hammer. I can actually smash the hard outside, whilst containing a perfect round shell less coconut.
Perhaps I should make an instructional youtube video or something.
Also: You seriously underrated pears, they are simply awesome! I don’t understand your opinion towards oranges either. If you use a knife to chop it in 4 parts, it’s a whole lot easier eating them.
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I would love this in a poster format. I am in beverage marketing and have seen about a thousand of these with little beverage logo’s when we are looking for white-space to fill. I think the reason we lay info out in this manner is to make it look like we actually did the homework. Nice work.
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Where would Jackfruit be ranked? Does the difficulty level contemplate the harvesting or is it just about unpeeling, taking off the seeds? Maybe every reader should send Randall a sample of a missing/uderrated fruit on the chart! Jackfruit’s harvesting is far off the chart.
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clearly i have a much bigger desire for citric acid than you do. also grapefruit is much easier if you use one of these: http://www.chefn.com/products/gadgets/grapefruiter.html
though to be fair i drink grapefruit juice like this guy drinks pepsi:
http://www.sirpepsi.com/default.htm
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An open poll is here:
http://ermarian.net/services/statistics/fruit
Have fun! =)
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On the banana issue: It depends entirely on the type of banana and how close to ripe it is. Anyone who thinks they’re bland and not sweet has obviously been eating them 2-3 days too early.
Tomatoes, like bananas, increase exponentially in tastiness (and squishiness) over time. likewise, they go through an appeal singularity where they achieve perfection then hours later become sacs of putrescent goo. UNLIKE bananas, tomatoes don’t ripen properly after they’ve been picked–so don’t buy ’em from the supermarket. If you can’t grow them yourself, find someone local who does.
A fruit-voting app might tend toward the origin if it only tracked averages–by tracking variances and covariances, you might get some interesting circles and elipses going.
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Pineapples are not that hard, the technique is relatively simple, using oven mittens grab the crown and peel the skin (not worrying too much with waste), once the skin is done, chop the crown. Pretty easy, and if you get the small sandy soil ones, they top peaches hands down.
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Pineapples are far tastier than you give them credit for sir!
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On closer examination of the comic, I think I see where the problem lies. Your grapefruit is mouldy.
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Pack o’ proper lies, this is. Grapefruit is admittedly hard to get into, but man, have you ever gotten up on Christmas/Alterna-Demonitional Day, cut a grapefruit in half, sprinkled it up with some cinnamon sugar, topped it with a cherry, and warmed it all up in the oven? Obviously not. I agree with Teemu’s sentiment regarding a Z-axis; however, I would use it to demonstrate the potential taste shift available with proper preparation and/or usage. Another example: tomato increases in relative tastiness when sliced and placed atop a hamburger.
There are other inconsistencies with the chart, as well: cherries easier and less tasty than seeded grapes? Lemons, the go-to sour fruit, and green apples, the lesser-known sour fruit, on opposite sides of red apples? Pears ranked on an ease that clearly precludes the difficulties in determining appropriate ripeness? This is a chart, all right. A sea chart sailing us into the ocean of madness.
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watermelon used to suck…but now the new seedless watermelon is actually pretty tasty and has much less pips (seeds)…
you have seedless grapes…it’s only fair to add seedless watermelon…
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Don’t like Citrus? A friend of mine in college liked feeding citrus to virile men. She did that with a devilish look on her face, because citrus apparently improves the taste of… well…
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To hell with Grapefruit:
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why are people complaining about the name “cantaloupe”? It’s not just the american name; it’s also used in canada and europe. it’s only called “rockmelon” in australia and new zealand, so –you’re– the weird ones.
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Grapefruit fail on a by-themselves basis, but with the application of a sprinkle of sugar gain all manners of awesome flavourosity.
But the fact that you consider tomatoes tastier marks you as a true rapscallion, and I must waggle my finger in disapproval. Also, Cherries are vastly superior to blueberries, to the point of meriting capitalization to emphasize the point!
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Another thing to note: Many of the fruits in the chart vary wildly in terms of flavor and difficulty depending on the variety. There are many varieties of banana that are extremely difficult to open but 10X tastier than the grocery store variety (which are actually all clones of the same plant — in fact, some people think the banana industry will be destroyed by disease in a couple of decades due to disease.)
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If you’re going to be pedantic and include tomatoes, then you left off a large number of popular fruits-that-are-also-vegetables: cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, all squash including pumpkins, and pretty much every other vegetable that isn’t a leaf or a root.
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That chart’s probably only good for New England, where apples grow naturally and ripen on trees but watermelons must be imported or subject to an abbreviated growing season, and Mr. Munroe may have never tasted an actual tomato what grows on a bush.
Along the Gulf of Mexico, where apples drive all the way from Washington and watermelons, citrus, and tomatoes grow in the backyard, the chart would probably read differently.
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my only real problem… banana’s are way the easiest fruit (or one of them). No juice to squirt everywhere and worry about. you can open them with your bare hands (no knifery needed). and they have a handy little casing so that you do not get sticky fruit goo all over your hands.
the ONLY fruits easier than banana’s are things like blueberries or seedless grapes that you eat whole and have nothing to throw out at the end.
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HONEYDEW HONEYDEW HONEYDEW!
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Grapefruit is awesome. I understand its harsh, but I truly love it. Fuck sugar on it. Its all about the bitter bitches.
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DEATH TO THE CITRUS BERATERS!
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And on a more calm, reserved note, in the defense of my beloved grapefruit:
The sweet ain’t as sweet without the bitter.
-The DTs
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I agree with jman583. I can put a banana in my backpack and not have to worry about any preparation when I bite. Too easy!
We have started a facebook group/petition. “Make xkcd recognize the facility of bananas in the fruit spectrum”
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I’d just like to say on the subject of tomatoes:
Knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit. Intelligence is knowing not to put it into a fruit salad.
It’s amazing that there’s so much controversy, over FRUIT. it’s just a comic. none of this may have anything to do with the real world, (e.g. nerd-sniping: fun but not actually done anywhere)
it’s just XKCD’s opinion, and it makes us laugh looking at the comics. Funnier would have been to place things in obviously wrong positions, and wait for all your reactions. WAIT – he’s actually done that. oh well…
IF you really care so much, take it apart using photoshop or the GIMP and move everything around to where you want it. PROBLEM SOLVED.
Oh Yeah – BACK TO WORK!
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Cool graph. Reminds me of something you might see at Indexed. Of course, the only reason I knew about Indexed was the link from your comic, so it’s all circular.
Frankly, apples can go all over the graph, depending on variety.
The most important rule for apples: “Red Delicious” is only half right.
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Being kind of a food nerd myself, I found the placement of fruit on your grid quite apt.
All things being equal, if one takes a food preparation stance when rating various fruits, one can easily see the wisdom here. Citrus fruits like lemons require a lot of coddling, not only in terms of extracting the fruit from the skin, but in temrs of making them palletable – nobody plucks a lemon from the tree and pops it in their mouth as they would a plum or peach. The former would be pretty revolting IMO.
Tomatoes are another one. There’s something about the big-ish grocery store variety that require some kind of sugar or fat to balance out the acidity of the fruit. Cherry tomatoes are probably the only exception.
Oh yea, and fuck coconut. The stuff tastes like sun-tan lotion anyway.
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I’ve seen a technique for peeling pineapple which utilized a smallish machete and stripped the bloody thing of its spines and “eyes” in a matter of a few minutes, leaving a fresh, quartered pineapple with a lovely spiral pattern. When I attempted to replicate this, I nearly cut off a couple of my fingers. But with practice, it looks pretty easy to open them.
What about durian and jackfruit? Covered with spikes and not really worth the effort, if you ask me, especially durian. Rambutan, on the other hand, is easy and delicious.
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By the way, some fruits are missing. The pomelo, for example, is a really tasty citrus fruit although it may be a bit difficult to eat. (In wonder if by the time I will click the Submit-button someone will have written exactly this.)
@ James
Well, I think you had a clear advantage over me because I had to imagine how wonderful the world would be with a fruit rating system and how we could solve Randall’s “fruity mailbox problem” and which fruits are actually missrated – and then translate the whole thing. You just had to think of how wonderful the world would be with a… And so on.
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I will concede to you for most of the chart but oranges need to be just a little closer to the tasty side.
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How the hell is an orange more difficult to eat than a watermelon? You can open an orange with your fingers, you need a (large) knife for watermelon, and then you have to worry about correctly storing the huge portion you didn’t eat.
Also, oranges are fucking delicious. I can understand how you might think they weren’t if you’ve been eating nasty California oranges or something, but Florida oranges are fantastic.
The citrus hate is uncalled for. Pineapples in particular, while I’ve never figured out how to open one myself, belong near the very top of the tasty axis.
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I think it is really funny that this came out less than a week after the Duty Calls strip, proving how accurate that strip is.
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Cantaloupe sucks.
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All hail the mighty Cherimoya, lord of the fruits, and his lovely queen Mangosteen!
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Bananas untasty?
If you weren’t so damned witty, xkcd, you’d have lost a reader there!
Also: how the hell did I miss a comic about cunnilingus?!
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The little Baby tomatoes found in garden salads are juicier and sweeter than their larger brethren.
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I realize that of lot these fruits’ placement on this grid reflect an individual human’s preferences & proclivities… but there is NO WAY to justify calling lemons easier to eat than oranges. Maybe you’ve been eating juice oranges? Try navels. They’re the ones with the navel. You can peel them with a decent fingernail, they naturally break into bite-sized sections, and they don’t spill at all.
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POMEGRANATES AND ORANGES? UNTASTY? FUCK YOU AND YOUR SHITTY TASTE
I USED TO THINK YOU WERE COOL, BUT IT’S ALL OVER NOW
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This could be interesting in 3D. Z axis based on price.
Also bananas got jewed.
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Your anti-citrus agenda is disappointing to me.
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corz — I prefer orange jews.
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Limes should be on the positive relative to lemons.
Kiwi should be in the difficult but oh so tasty range.
Where are pumpkins, they would classify as unrelentingly difficult and gross tasting.
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Pumpkins are not fruit, they are a halloween decoration.
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Rofl, this made me late for work. Orange-hating grape-lover!
Seriously I don’t see how you can stand grapes and not like oranges. And LEMONS. Lemons are delicious. I don’t even see limes on there!! Limes are even better than lemons!
Someone suggested that fruity make-your-own-graph idea, and I totally might have to get on that.
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What fthe fuck is wrong with you? Oranges and bananas should be on the “tasty” side, and peaches SUCK!
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It can’t be stressed enough:
The only source of bitterness in grapefruits is the membrane/integument/whatever-it-is-called between and around the segments.
There is no need for special spoons, knives or even sugar, when “peeled”
all the way. Give it a try!
Admittedly, that peeling process ranges pretty far left on the Difficulty scale.
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umm…i don’t have much time, so i don’t know if anyone’s mentioned the kiwi?
i think maybe, it could be…if we use fruits as units (3,2) cause you cut them in half and eat them with a spoon?
OH! you put them at (3,2,5) didn’t you? (using the z-axis as ‘awesome’)
sorry slight misunderstanding
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Oh, so totally wrong. Cantaloupe is delicious! And plums better than bananas? wtf?
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Cantaloupe, aka Musk Mellon is awesome, but its hard to find a good one that isn’t hard and dry. A good one is very fragrant and juicy with lots of flavor. I guess you have never had a proper one, so I’ll forgive you for casting such unfavorable opinions.
Also, you need to try a nice firm plantain before dismissing bananas and their ilk.
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