Went over to Costo at lunch hour to buy some coffee and ran into this monstrosity.

Strike one - Brown Turkey
Strike two-  Unripe, hard as a rock (picture does not do them justice)
Strike three- taste? No thanks. May as well go home and chow down on some green Almas for free.

Imagine some poor fig curious bystander paying good money for these things. They would have fig nightmares for the rest of their lives.

that's bad news

How dare they! That could've been me!!

there is no shame.. urgh..

Trader Joe's in ABQ has the same ones plus some unripe green ones.

That's disgusting. They should make the people who order the produce taste it!

I tried the TJs ones last week, they taste as a slightly sweet grass. Their dry figs, on the other hand, are not bad.

Living here in zone 6 illinois is hard to get some things right from the tree. Citrus being one of them. I never see fig trees for sale anywhere around here let alone figs at the store. Things are always better right from the tree. That's why I grow my own figs and citrus

This is me on the floor of Costo's produce section earlier today....

I have a related question. I'm new to growing figs. The only figs I've tasted are in Fig Newtons and one fig from the store that looks exactly like those pictured above. I thought that the store fig tasted like a sweet mushy ball of nothingness. That fig ended my interest in figs for several years.

I grow lots of fruits and vegetables and I recently noticed how beautiful figs are and I really like way their leaves smell. I decided that maybe, like tomatoes and other things, figs could taste better if I grew them myself. I have two figs now, Green Ischia and one labeled Purple Italian. I haven't had any figs yet.

Finally, I get to my question. Can anyone suggest a good tasting fig variety that is far removed from my grocery store sweet ball of nothingness? I live in Florida, so cold tolerance isn't a factor, but we have a lot of humidity. I know it's hard, but could you try to describe the taste?

Thanks.

FmD. - lol
numb nuts probably thought they ripen in transit like some other fruits !

Gettingfiggy  - Hardy Chicago may fit the bill in your area along with others that have small eye as its good rain tolerant and easily obtainable from various nurseries.
Taste is subjective i'll just say its not over powered by sweetness and first thing to taste is a rich fiiggy taste which can linger on palate in a good way .
Underrated as its very common to acquire but a  tasty fig.

Usually we get them full colour, still hard and with mold, I don't know which one is better.

That's one way to ensure the figs ship well, pick them before they are ripe.

@Rafed - Perfectly stated! Volume and inflection also. Heston's the man!

I saw those same figs in my part of SoCal in Trader Joe's this morning. I didn't think they looked ripe enough - and with all the figs I have coming on, was not tempted to buy them. Last year I did buy some and they were just OK. Kinda sad that those sorts of fruits will turn people off on figs. But then, many other store-bought fruits are sub-standard too.


(gettingfiggy, welcome. You'll probably get more responses if you start a new thread with your question.)

There are a few fruits that if you try them dead ripe off the tree you will NEVER be able to buy them again at a supermarket.

These include:

All stone fruit (especially peaches & cherries)
Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries 
Figs

Apples can be okay
Pears from the store are great, because you ripen them off the tree anyway. Works out for commercial farmers.

Great video clips

On the other hand, I've been buying figs from California sent to Wegmans supermarket in Johnson City NY, over the past three weeks.  They've been the best supermarket-bought figs that I've bought in 34 years.     I think they're Black Mission, and I've had a lot of figs bought at a supermarket but rarely as good as these.  (These are packed by westernfreshmarketing.com).  The best of them are pretty close in overall quality to figs I've grown and ripened on my own trees.   34 years ago I used to buy fresh figs around here in supermarkets too, but those were grown by local hobby growers who'd get a bunch ripening all at once and had to do something with the extras.  Just saying that occasionally it is possible to find decent figs at a supermarket.  Not often, but... occasionally.

Mike