Thanks for sharing this very useful table.  I'm trying to do something similar with the varieties I'm growing but with somewhat less emphasis on the flavor and more emphasis on practical issues such as cold hardiness, overall vigor, splitting in rain etc.

Thank you for sharing this.

I ignore those charts as taste on ones palate can be excellent to one and insipid to another.

Once propagated a rated 9 off a chart ( Santa Cruz Dark ) and it was not a 9 on personal palate but rated on palate extremely low maybe good for cattle feed but thats on my palate no ones else.

Sal,
Thanks.
Is there a way to get the source of this chart? I'm interested in how things are judged. I'd love to see a way to judge different figs that isn't entirely subjective and all I've seen so far is the brix meter which may or may not have value in judging the differences between the varieties. It does give us some info but relating it then becomes problematic.

Probably from a chefs informative letter. fig growers sell well grown and hard to fing variety crop figs to chefs all the time.
they describe the culinary spot well there.
BTW if we could find a system for describing figs like in this  doc it would be great. provides more info than great tasting or jam like etc although they use it for marabout...

Martin hi - probably depends on alot of factors..
maybe we should make a fig comitee  to decide on these thinges

Ken Love's main fig page is http://www.hawaiifruit.net/index-figs.html which includes a page with that info

http://www.hawaiifruit.net/figtastescale.htm   Tasted figs with various ratings using discriptors from Ed Stover, Chef Paul Heerlein and Ken Love

Harvey thanks for that link i used to have it and thats the chart i was referring to in my post.

I had correspondence with Ken Love some years back talking about figs and we came to find out that we were only 1 town apart from each before the venture to Hawaii . 

Small world.

Hi Martin,

I was just corresponding with Ken earlier this week in regards to the trellis systems used in Japan (am probably going to try it myself).  Although I've never met him in person, I've known him for about 10 years and he used to buy chestnuts from me for his mother.  He teased me a bit for now coming to the CRFG Festival of Fruit in late September this year, saying I could ask the Japanese professor in person about the fig growing methods there.  Unfortunately, that's when I'm in the middle of chestnut harvest.

Maybe in 5 years I can have a fig tasting here at my place and do a similar table, covering maybe 100 or more varieties.

I saw  a clip of him on youtube and he knows his stuff with the fruit trees...
i like his page too not a fancy blog but very informative to the curious ...

Ken and I were recently discussing/debating Brown Turkey.  The best fig in Hawaii is Brown Turkey but I suspect it's not the same variety as what is sold in California, yet Ken made a comparison to Brown Turkey figs from Hawaii vs. California.  He said that there were different Brown Turkey figs available in Hawaii also....what a mess.

My brown turkey changed when moving it from clay pot to plastic. not only the taste but also ripening time and fruit size.
i think it can change the same way between different places...

Harvey i am going back to clay. these plastic pots are un natural for the figs. they love the dry spells..

I love to know flavor profiles, and have bookmarked the link!  Thanks for this post, and the links!  Not every fig I own or desire is on that chart, but it's a good guide.

Been MIA for a while.  Moving and renovating at the same time is not an easy task!  I let a lot of figs slide, and some I carefully planted, died for reasons I don't understand.  I'll be back full force in spring.

Thanks so much!  Great post and info from others!

Suzi