give the fact, i'm rather new to figs, and i only have 4 trees that's at 4 yr old, i'm sure i don't know what i'm talking about.

however, this yr, i tasted 9 different figs that i have grown. 5 of them were first yr figs and i'm sure they will improve with age.

but here is what i'm noticing. they are all about same.

i mean, some are better than the others. definitely. but the taste profile is all about same. sweet. some are little more complex, but it's hard to put in what that taste is like other than to say it's sweet. other than VdB, i can honestly say that all the rest are about the same. some being more sweet and has something extra that can't be put to a word. some has note of honey. slight melon taste in others..

am i just being naive? i had CdDB yesterday. i took it off few days too early. it was my first CdDB and i wasn't sure what i was looking for and i took it off to see how ripen it was. it was good.. but once again, it was about same with Kathleen's Black and Paradiso. sweet.

i'm beginnig to understand why some member will say "it's good to my taste buds".

i'm waiting for Black Madeira to see if it's the same with that fig.

Pete, I think there is a finite difference between most of them. There are some that really stand out from others that I have tasted.
The Unk Afghanistan, Hollier, Malta Black, Tacoma Violet, and Lyndhurst White just to name a few that have a really different
taste from the others, at least for this year.

mike, some do stand out. RdB i had few days ago, although it was first yr fig, and only one that was on the tree, it was good. sweet and it had that certain something.. but if i have to describe the taste.. i would be like any other figs. sweet, complex, but like any other figs. VdB on the other hand, when the weather was good, had that raspberry taste that jumped out. one of the Calvert i had this yr had that tartness i never had in any other figs i have. i mean, it's like apple, i only had apples bought at super market, but i know i like fuji, but if they ask me what is it about fuji that i like, i would say it's sweet, and had right texture. so does honey crisp, but in general, they are both apple and not too far off from each other to me.

maybe i'm hoping for another VdB like fig that will just jump out and make me notice.

Pete
You get it!!
Figs taste good, bad, and better.  The "better" is not only the sweet but the "other", the "complex", the "figgyness".  To my taste buds, the "other/complex/figgyness" is a certain earthy goodness that is pretty much indescribable.  Bad may be too watery, bitter, insipid, dry, sour, berry, melon, jam, or whatever, I either like a fig or not, then I like some better than others, for the moment, as I am quite fickle on "favorite" foods, LOL

I stand by my figs taste good, bad, and better classification.

I know what you mean, Pete.  I've tried a handful of varieties and they all are very similar.  I'm looking forward to the day I can try something like a VdB to compare to.

Listening to you guys is making me smile! It all comes back to VdB. I heard that through most of the posts I read when I joined SO I bought one on the net from Burnt Ridge THEN I bought cuttings. I have now 5 VdB's and am almost done air layering the skinny pencil from Burnt Ridge in half so I will have 6. I'm keeping them all until I find another that will knock my socks off. You guys are great and I hope you never get tired of posting your experiences on the forum for us all to learn from. A big heart felt thank you!

only problem with VdB is.. it has to have some what normal weather.. what i mean is.. little bit of rain, lot of sunshine, and good hot temp. which we had for last few yrs until this yr when the nature decided to dump all it's water reserve on top of us. don't get me wrong, VdB still put on good number of figs, and they are still ripening. but with all this rain, the true taste is not there. it's just ok fig when there is no weather to back it up. i'm letting the figs dry on the tree in hope that will give me what i want. last few were starting to get that raspberry taste.

I think we're good on the weather part down here. If we have a rainier summer I am completely willing and ready to cover pots.

Bullet in time you "may" weed out the ones that have very close profiles to each other otherwise you will have way too many plants which are not needed .

 There are fig plants that taste excellent right from the first time they bear there fruit those are the exceptional ones in my book to name a few Black Madeira, Hardy Chicago, Violette de Bordeaux but thats on my palate.

Vdb and HC have never failed in taste year after year period.
Madeira so far last 2 seasons its bearing ripe fruit shows the same.

Now if blindfolded i could taste those 3 mentioned and tell which is which .
In short thats what i want growing in my yard ones that are different from one another and not ones that are similar nor good or decent .

If and when you taste your 1st truly "dead ripe" Madeira please post your thoughts and compare them to those other 9 first time tasting ones you had.
Can't wait !
 

martin, i'm still waiting on it to start swelling and turn color.. or whichever comes first. they are still green and sitting there. much slower than VdB. you know i'll be posting ton of pix :) oh.. got a line on some other much talked about fig too.. but that will be next yr.

Pete this is an important topic and the whole point of growing figs--to eat yummy stuff. I have a strong opinion regarding this subject actually.

Cultivars defining flavor are overrated. At the risk of sounding ridiculous--99% of how good a fig's flavor truly is depends on weather, if the fig was fully ripened, maturity of tree, and I personally think container vs in ground makes a big difference unless you take care on what you are doing with whats actually in the soil/wet/dry etc. but still at risk of compromising the flavor greatly. 

In fact, until you have very deep 100 year old roots on a tree in a super dry climate you can't start getting the real deal based on my experiences which come from dry farming or zero irrigation practices where the deep roots can just just barely enough water from the dry soil... many varieties in the Middle East are grown like Negretta where they are said you can be negligent and plant them in cement or whatever and they'll do fine. Negligence for a century in ideal climate is key to getting the best figs unfortunately I think. However we can still have awesome tasting figs here as well.

I do think there are a few classes of flavor for example a Kadota tastes very different from a Mission. It most defintiely does... this is actually a great simple taste test readily available for all members to do to see what kind of figs they may like if they can find a single ripe one among a store batch. The Kadotas are true honey figs with simple straight thru sweet flavor-tough skin vs the mission thinner skin. A mission has a bit more complex flavor. I think there are other classes of fig flavors as well but there are maybe some 5 categories or so I've had... like VdB... all the subtle flavors tho like hints of melon etc. can be real and be there but may not be so dependent always on the cultivar as that given season or be a small flavor note. The overall category of fig flavor though I think is nice to note for people. Like I thought Hollier was a true honey fig tasting like Kadota--but it seemed more similar to celeste or brown turkey in flavor profile when I had it recently... Figs on the same tree can even have different color interior pigment too... so we can't underestimate the molecular diversity in each fruit even when the same cultivar...

I will also say that some of the best tasting/highly reviewed finds in recent times always come from picking figs off a 30+ year old tree... Not to upset anyone--but I would take a fully ripe Brown Turkey off a 50 year old tree fully ripened in southern Iran any day of the week over the most coveted cultivar one day underripe or with a bit of rain having hit. That is pretty much the truth. Fruit flavor intensifies near expontentially the last couple days. That is why store bought peaches taste horrible 99% of the time. Of course, the best thing ever is to have the best cultivar ever grown in the most ideal condition ever and fully ripened. Then you're in heaven. I aint denying that--that's why I'm into growing many varieties of many fruit. The advantage of having multiple cultivars however for me is especially for in ground growing having early types for short growing seasons... like a Kathleen's Black is an amazing improvement on a Mission for us in Virginia. larger fig, hardy, delicious, etc. and *EARLY*. adapted to VA basically. But honestly, a well grown properly ripe Mission and a well grown properly ripe Kathleens black taste the same. Obviously not 100% the same but no two figs even of same tree taste 100% the same anyway... but they're in the same family of flavor period. There's no comparison of a kathleens black flavor to a kadota. Also I think the different colors and different flavor categories are fun. But to consider making judgement on a fig's flavor prior to 5 years of harvesting from a maturing in ground tree in optimal weather isn't fair to the cultivar and they will all taste great by then. I also like collecting different cultivars for the diversity in colors/shapes... it's just fun.  

I guess my main point is--of course an awesomely ripe wrinkled up fig off a 50 year old tree tastes amazing and an underipe first batch of figs grown in a pot will just taste OK with few exceptions like Martin said who has much more experience with container growing cultivars like B Madeira. Again, I'm not trying to say cultivar doesn't matter. The genetics of a fig are very important and impart cool characteristics like small eyes, size, skin thickness, color, and flavor uniqueness... DNA is what makes things as diverse as humans vs cats vs peaches... but yeah proper cultivation is more key to anything and I think this is why most of the figs in southern Iran taste different way different than the average or even best figs here. This is true amongst all fruit types--variety matters--but the best variety will taste like crap on any given day, week, season depending on other stuff... I guess I can also say some of the ones that are harder to grow do have more max potential flavor and some of the ones well adapted for us may have milder flavors... a black madeira grown ripened with all the summer heat inside him as a late cultivar... vs a st anthony early perhaps milder and ripe only after a couple weeks of real heat has hit him...

Pete,
When I first started researching fig cultivars in the forum archives, I came across information about "flavor groupings". I set about acquiring and tasting figs in each group.

The flavor groups, to my understanding are;
Sugar...Improved Celeste, Eastern Brown Turkey, O'Rourke, Etc.
Honey...Italian Honey, White Marseilles, Atreano, Etc.
Adriatic...Adriatic JH, Conadria, Green Ischia, Etc.
Bordeaux... VDB, Mission, Vista, Etc.
Dark(Black)... Sals EL, Hardy Chicago, Dark Sicilian, Etc.

Each flavor group has its distinctive taste, and each can be differentiated  just by tasting (a ripe fig). I have found that this helps  to organize the different cultivars that are being tasted and trialed. It also helps when eliminating cultivars, by choosing only the best tasting in each group. I have also noted that partially ripe figs all have the same melon (watermelon rind) flavor.

Many of the dark unknowns that I have tasted this year have a similar flavor profile, sweet, berry and mild fig. The first VDBs of this season also had that same profile but they weren't fully ripe, I'm sure they will get that rich VDB flavor once they are allowed to fully ripen.

pete, i know for a fact they don't all taste the same. i left my first year morle parsdiso on the tree til almost shrivled.  it tasted like peaches with just a hint of fig. i believe that ina blindfold taste test  most people would say peaches, not figs. to me, it was better than either.

now, mike has one too, but he picked his when ripe. he said a hint of melon, as i remember.

mine didn't have a hint of anything but a little fig. the taste was peaches. period.

try leaving a few figs on the tree til a few days before shriveling n see if that doesn.'t change your mind.

Just wait till you taste a perfectly ripe black Maderia or De La Senyora or Smith or Violet Sepor or JH Adriatic or Excel or Peters Honey or Black Mission or Pasterilere.

Then you'll see the difference. But I must stress this....The older, the tree the better the figs will be. My Pasterilere took YEARS to produce edible figs and they are freaking amazing. And the same goes for La'Goccia d'Oro.

Dennis you sure have a wide variety of figs! I agree, not familiar with all of those you mentioned, but of those I know, the flavor is pretty distinctive. I would add Blanca de Maella and Kathleen's Black. I know Pete has tasted KB and liked it. I  think it has a pretty distinctive flavor over many others. I'm about to taste Black Ischia for the first time and am waiting for my first Black Madeira and Preto too. I fully expect a real taste sensation with those.

BLB, I do have a large collection. I forgot about Black Ischia. That's another good one! Some rant and rave about Black Ischia, it's good but some of the black varieties do taste the same. I picked one Black Ischia last week. It was very good but I had so many others that stood out over just one Black Ischia. Normally, Violette de Bordeaux is a really good fig. This year my Violete de Bordeaux taste like my flip flop! Every dang one of them!

I'm looking forward to my Black Maderia and Preto too.

What type of Black Ischia UcDavis or another as several others which i have had  Jons 3014X and Exotica Ischia black
are not Ischia Black and most likely in the Bordeaux family according to what i have observed in taste and leaf shape.

I was out there again, getting bit by mosquitos, burning my lips, mouth, and throat with latexy unripe Petite Negris, because everything the least bit ripe is souring.  At least PN eventually stopped tasting like strawberry flip flops and started doing it's thing here.  Too bad I can't get a ripe of these.  If I had my own property, with sunlight, no question an O'Rourke or two is put there.

One thing that was always interesting to me, was that VdB usually beats Ischia Black in the big Wolfskill tastings.

One thing that makes figs such a pay-off as a hobby are the historical accidents that have had people growing mediocre varieties (not all those Celeste were even good as Celeste) through most of the US.  Few people have had truly excellent fresh figs.  It's so different with most fruits.  I knew about Carrie mangos right from the start.  People have had Golden Delicious and Jonathan and Comice.  Nobody was eating just Kieffer pears or just growing those trees.  I have been studying pomegranates the last few days, and really, it's pretty much is established what the good poms are, as suggested by HarveyC in the thread about visiting him.  Been that way for at least, oh, 2009 or so.  And Wonderful is actually a very high quality pom in the first place.  We're still getting things a bit down with figs, especially given how much they vary with climate and soil.

I feel bad for you folks with all that rain spoiling your figs .

Shah I would only respectfully disagree about pomegranates. Most of the best ones in the US comes from Dr. Levin's collection which was fantastic but did not skim the surface of the some of the most special regions of the world's poms... there may be as many pomegranates missing in the US as there are figs--actually way more probably--that is to say many thousands of varieties. Wonderful is a very good pomegranate when properly grown/ripened--underrated I would strongly agree. But not at the top even just amongst the US germplasm. Perhaps though it is well established the best pomegranates amongst the US germplasm. But I think the pomegranate germplasm is still very limited in geographic representation and at maybe 300 or less varieties.

They are mostly the same . But still some figs are superior.

sure, i can tell the different in taste from blind taste taste. i know the taste profile of my figs. but in general, they are still very close to each other. nothing screams out to say "i'm unique, i'm different". there is slight difference that distinguish one fig from another. RdB had slight note to it that it make it different from the other. so does CdDB and others. but nothing really jumps out. it's like.. i eat an apple and i eat an orange, i know there is distinctive difference.

when i eat Paradiso and then Kathleen's Black, i know they are different figs, but there isn't all that much of great jump to let me know they are something unique from each other. but when i pop in VdB, i know for sure that is something totally different.

from what i have read CdDB is considered one of the best figs. i know it has good taste. it was different. but it was fig. i'm hoping Madeira Black will wow me. and once i have my hand on Maltese Beauty, i'm hoping that will also impress me. i collected few knowing that they will have less production than the others on purpose, just to taste them. i mean, Calvert impressed me right away. that load of tartness lingering in my mouth was something to remember. but that was about it this yr. even VdB is not all that.

You know...stuff does need to go in the ground and you do need to give it a decade to really ramp up what differences there are between figs.  Of course, the difference between storebought kadota and mission is not huge at all.  A bit of melon here, a touch of molasses there.  More of a difference in that kadota has big skin and honey syrup.  You've gotta develop a taste for the finer gradations of figs, you know...  Same with cheese or wine or tea.

persimmon2orchard, most everything, including figs, that isn't dead common are predominantly nucleated by just one or two collections like Fairchild Gardens.  Minor fruits are the provinces of singular monomaniacs.  Breeding as well.  Tons of newer mango varieties, as well as multiple collections of old mango varieties, but how many Cherimoyas do we got?  How much of a breeding effort do we put into those?

We can do with more Iranian and Indian poms, I suppose, but I kind of get the sense that the broad overview and collection of these have already happened.  The Southeast, especially the Georgia and Florida ag department, seems to have long term interest in collecting for varieties that will do well here, so we may yet see some new big hype yet.

true.. i haven't been in this long enough to have developed that impeccable touch of connoisseur. it's not beer that for sure.. been drinking since i was 3 yrs old. lol

Sooo, how many IBUs can you handle, Pete?