My florea

I still may get some others to try later in the season like Lattarolla, Strawberry Verte, Bournabat or Battaglia Green.  At this point in the season based on taste alone since my yearling trees haven't (were not allowed) to produce more than 2 figs, I'd have to say Enola 3 is the one I'd keep right now.

Thanks for all the replies. I know it's not realistic to only have 1 variety or in my case less than 100 varieties.

Considering all factors, sweetness, taste, production etc. I also take Celeste at this time. I have a hundred I haven't tasted yet but one that might take away the title from Celeste is O'Rourke, which is an improved Celeste. My tree is young, second year in ground, and it has produced around 50 figs this year of which they all ripened or are ripening with not one split or sour with all the rain we've had. Also the rain hasn't affected the taste. It rain all fig season last year and this year and the figs taste very sweet and yummy. I don't know how they'll hold up to preserving, only time will tell. I hope to have a dry year to really get a good taste of them. If they improve from a year like this one then I can't wait.

OMOTM, Steve I glad to hear that about the Enola #3. Mine will go in the ground this fall. Do you also have the #1 and #2 to compare it too.


"gene"

Gene,

I couldn't get Enola 1 started from cuttings after three tries and gave up since Tim thought they might all be the same.

Enola 2 is a much smaller fig than Enola 3.  Both 2 and 3 are good tasting figs but I prefer 3 better as it had a richer flavor.  Personally, I think 2 and 3 are different but this may change as they grow older.

By color, here are my draft picks....
Green one....JH Adriatic....just doesn't taste like a fig to me
Yellow one......Peter's Honey......I just love that rich thick honey flavor!
Brown one.....Toni's Brown Italian
Greenish brown/yellow......Violet Sepor -- still can't get the taste of that fig out of my mind!!!!
Purple .....Marva Sika
Blue one......My Brown Turkey Not! --Don't care what others think! It's not VdB, Petite Negra, or Negronne
Black one.....Pasterilere.....juciest fig ever and unique flavor

This was hard to do.

I think I'd have to go with Preto ... so far. Black Greek is a close second.

The Sicilian Black, my fave ATM. But I have to go thru, N's Dark Greek, G. Nero, Napolitana Negra, Galicia Negra etc etc.

Can be most any size, can have any of a wide range of tastes, must be productive, cold hardy, early season ripening, rain resistant, ripen continuously to or through frost, thrive in growing zone 6, dark in skin color, juicy or moist of pulp - and preferably have finger- or rod-like (Stella) leaves, an oblate or round fruit shape, dark pulp, and grow vigorously. Who has it? Who can create it? Some sort of Stella-Keddie-Mt Etna-LSU Purple cross. Then cross that with an apple for uber-hardiness. Could settle for a small handful of dynamite cultivars here in zone 6, if necessary, though difficult to contemplate keeping one only. If pressed, currently I would probably choose Keddie over, say, Gino's, given Keddie's remarkable taste that I've experienced and its reputed cold hardiness - said to grow or to have grown uncovered in Pittsburgh.

Have tasted only good fruit of about a dozen varieties this year including: Sal's GS (tangy berry), Papa John (berry), Celeste (lingering sweet), Gino's (deep berry), Keddie (smooth caramel), Improved Celeste PFP (refreshing juice), Lattarula (sugar), Lemon/Blanche (mango/apple/sweet melon), Hardy Chicago (glazed candy), and various tasty unknown green, yellow, and purple. Keddie set itself apart in both quality and duration of taste (lingering on tongue and then mind) and also in reliability of quality from fruit-to-fruit. That said, Lemon, HC, IC, Gino's, Sal's, Celeste, and the others have all tasted remarkable, so would be foolish to diminish the lot in considering the most impressive one, not to mention the reputed other valuable attributes of most of those cultivars. Lattarula lagged a bit as a simple sugar taste but I imagine might not in the future.

Expecting additional cultivars to ripen this season but none cold hardy enough or early ripening enough to surpass Keddie in the all-around, probably. So Keddie wins the year, to call it early. Next year and beyond the competition should increase markedly (looking at you, Mt Etna, et al). Acquired a lot of cuttings and plants the past couple years. Will look to recoup dollars by cuttings sales on ebay in future. In-ground planting tests begin this winter. Hopes there pinned mainly on young Mt Etna cultivars rebounding from roots or from a few trunks into next summer. Keddie won't make it into ground until next summer. Won't rush the champ. And yet, my favorite fig apparently does not exist either in my yard or outside of an ideal, not unless someone can point me to the living, respiring cultivar and specimens exactly as described above, including both must have and preferred attributes. In the meantime and for now, I choose Keddie. I'm surprised that Keddie could separate itself, given that the others have been so wonderful. Down the road (mainly next year and beyond) looking forward to trying and trialing Takoma Violet, Malta Black, Marseilles Black VS, Fico Preto, Stella, Negronne, RDB, and assorted others - especially any basic cold hardy, productive, early ripening, and weather durable cultivars. Glad to see it said that Stella is relatively cold hardy, though not dark, because I can't get over the leaves on the one I put in ground. (Evolved to deal with the strong bora winds along the coast of Croatia?) It stands apart.

Based on sentiment alone (family connection), I'd choose the Frank's strain of English Brown Turkey. (EBT - Frank's Fig strain).

However, if discounting sentimentality, I'd choose Hardy Chicago at this point.  Not because it's the greatest taste, but because so far around my place it has the best balance of being a reliable producer and a good tasting fig.  I'm waiting to see on a couple of other varieties that haven't yet produced here, but I think will do well (including the Chiappetta Unk that you've distributed around the community, as well as Marseilles Black VS, and several other varieties).  Some of these may well eclipse Hardy Chicago in my locale, but so far aren't proven (only because I haven't had enough time with them yet).

So, unless I missed it, I don't think you've yet answered your own question Art!  I'm guessing you'll say Chiappetta Unk based on past comments I saw you make... but, well... what is your favorite?

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a (and 4b in a close by second locale)

Mike, That is an easier question to ask than to answer. I would have to agree with you on the HC. I've been eating figs daily from my HC and a couple other Mt. Etna type trees. It's not my favorite in taste but is damn good. Most productive for my area. I've ate well over 100 figs from them.
I would say my best tasting this year was JH Adriatic and Chiappetta. They are young so I can't say how productive they will be.
I'm like the others, I will have a better answer after next year.

i have no experience tasting figs but i can't imagine anything much better than morle's paradisio. tastes like peaches with a hint of fig, but better than either.

I am kinda surprised that the selection process was narrowed down to taste, kinda like selecting a mate for life on looks alone, I selected my life mate (wife, aka she who must be obeyed) on a lot of criteria, and looks were way down the list.  In the case of the fig, I want something with more substance than just taste, ie; volume of production, cold hardiness, drought resistance, etc, remember you can only select one, I took this to mean that I had to live with my choice, kinda like marriage.

A lot of very good tasting figs would likely perish in cold, or heat, or drought, or soil conditions, etc.

Give me an ugly fig that is going to be there, and there, and there, and OBTW, there with me through thick and thin.

See what response this brings, LOL

Danny, I'm with you. It doesn't have to be the best tasting or the prettiest.

I am all so with you Danny. It is not all ways about the taste.
Good one Art.

I agree that taste isn't the only factor.  But would you rather have a lot of so so figs or just a few of exceptional figs? 

Have you tasted a Hardy Chicago yet? It's not so so.

Art, actually I haven't.  But I wasn't saying any one fig that people posted as their favorite was so so.  Actually I was commenting on Danny's post.  All the other factors (production, cold hardiness, and so on) wouldn't be worth it if the fig didn't also taste good.   

Meghan, I got ya. I wish Black Madeira would ripen the figs like a good Mt Etna does here in the NE

Any fig that you've grown from a cutting and put hours upon hours of labor into.

If you ask 100 fig growers which is their favorite fig, you will get 100 different answers. I asked myself the same question 12 years ago, and ended up with over 300 varieties and I'm sure many of us can relate. 

I drove 5 hrs round trip to Philadelphia in the rain last week to buy a few baskets of Giovanni's Paradiso figs. I have never tasted anything so ethereal in my lifetime of eating figs on 3 continents.

Art, I didn't know we were supposed to be choosing a hypothetical fig....  

Judy Brady wrote the iconic feminist essay, "I want a wife." Danny K wrote the interesting figs4 post "My wife is a good fig" or "My one true fig is a good wife" not sure which. At the risk of gently pushing the humor, let's call it settled: Everyone north of Atlanta should grow the productive cold hardy and durable Marseilles Black (or a Gino's) and everyone south of Atlanta should grow the productive ample and rain resistant Hunt (or an Atreano) and everyone in Louisiana should grow the productive and powerful LSU Purple (or an LSU Black) and everyone west of the Mississippi should grow the productive reliable Celeste (or an Alma) except for those in California and thereabouts who should grow the best fig wasp fig. (To wildly categorize.) Or everyone everywhere should grow the perhaps most generally viable and irrepressible Mt Etna cultivars, or Celeste. Such standard setting figs are great but when you push past the standards things get variously interesting and often great too. Most of the original replies to this post do not focus solely on taste, I think it's fair to say. Possibly a plurality do but taste is likely to be the most commonly valued characteristic of any fruit including figs, which are anyway obviously not wives anymore than wives are figs. Ask Judy Brady, if you dare! Who wouldn't want a super fig? A sweet productive durable cultivar. Super figs make growers' lots much easier but diversity is rewarding too. The other great thing about figs not being wives (or husbands) is that there is no prohibition against choosing, say, three great figs (or 30 or 300) or against cycling through favorites. Focusing on Keddie, Gino, Stella this year. Atreano and Hunt and Marseilles Black and Stella in future years. And then another change. All to the good. (So maybe it's difficult to give up Stella. And Keddie. And Gino.) Happily, these are figs not girlfriends and boyfriends, not the mothers and fathers of children. 

For me this is easy, the one that grew at my grandparents house, my sister and I would spend our summer visits in that tree talking and eating figs.... nothing will ever beat that!!!