Ok, I'm getting confused. What does it mean when you call a fig TASTY? I'm interested in hearing your definition of a Tasty fig. To me, when I call a fig Tasty, it means it's a couple of notches above OK. I know this year will be a great year for figs and I want to get my documentation right.

I think figs are either.....on a scale of 1 to 10.

POA - Pass Out Amazing (12!)
Caps Lock OMG! - (10)
TA - Truly Amazing (9)
WOW! - (8)
Excellent - (7)
Very Sweet (6)
Sweet - (5)
TASTY - (4)
Good - (3)
Ok - (2)
Bland - (1)

So, how do you describe a tasty fig?

I love your rating scale!  Tasty probably means "good."  But I also like to WHAT the flavor tastes like...berry, melon, etc.
Suzi

Wow! what a challenge!

A fig has so much going for it that it is hard to discern the true elements of taste, certainly goodness in taste.  For comparison, consider the case of music, it is sound, it may be a note, a chord, a concert, all good, some better.  Do you like the violin as a solo instrument of in concert with other violins?  The in-concert parts brings a fullness and a richness that to many cannot be achieved by a solo instrument.  How does this pertain?  Your scale is good but does not include the richness of the "Figgy" flavor, which many consider the essential element of taste.  I think sweet is a note, "figgy" a full blown symphony.

Moronvia bt =12

To me there are a couple things to consider as well like Suzi says but I generalize a bit more with an unrefined palate.  I think of sugar (acid-sickly sweet), Honey, Richness.

I am not expert in ranking etc but for me I would say the fig was say a 4 but it was slightly acidic or the fig was an 8 with honeyed flavour but no Richness or it was 12 no acidity and extreme richness.  These are examples, I may be getting a bit complicated as well. 

So Ideally  based on your scale I would like anything 7 and above with a slight honey and average or better richness, I prefer not too much sugar all the time (Celeste is sugary as it is) and honey flavour reminds me of very good Baklava.  

I hope to taste enough fresh figs this year that I can begin discriminating.  The few I've tasted were category "awesome", so I'm eagerly waiting for more experience this summer. :)

BTW...I love the scale, Dennis!

Thanks Suzi. I'm gonna keep the scale. Now if I was to consider taste, I would link flavors like berry, melon, honey, etc. But you know, it's hard to rate flavors because everybody's taste is so different. To me, "figgy" isn't a flavor. I know we all use it to describe a fig's taste but I have to think real hard what figgy means. To me, figgy taste like dried sweet sticky figs. I like this in describing taste, flavor;

Flavor/ Taste
Honey Rich
Honey Sweet
Honey Mild
Berry Rich
Berry Acidic
Berry Sweet
Melon Watert
Melon Sweet
Sugary

For example, Black Maderia is a cross between Berry Rich and Honey Rich. Whereas, Italian 258 is Berry Acidic. I've never had a Black Maderia that was sugary. Celeste isn't rich but it is sugary.

Dennis , love your rating and flavor scales !! I agree that flavor subjective . LOL , don't know if my palate would be that discerning. Is there one topic/chart with fig variety ratings and flavors ?  Would be very much appreciated by me !

Damn Dennis, How do you do it? I believe you qualify to be our top fig connoisseur. I truly mean that. Your descriptions are great. Now if you could put a list of figs with pics with flavor chart. Now I know why you went to ucdavis, you were in tasting training. Ha

It has been so many years since I tasted a fresh fig, I can't wait.  I've learned alot in describing different tastes (flavors/aromas) in beer while I've dabbled in beer judging, hopefully that will carry though for me and help me to describe fig flavors in some detail.  Let me also say right upfront I'm not here to say someone's description is out of line.  I'd really like to try an example of Dennis' POA because it is a POA, but then put some words to the POA.  I'm not trying to pick a fight, rather it would be great to bring some uniformity to how we all describe the sensory perception of figs (OK, I'll say it, just like naming a fig).

I'm with Suzi.  Figs have to taste more than "sweet", "bland", "OK".  Maybe describe in terms of looks of of interior (pics usually take care of this one), aroma and flavor.  Dont' forget physical aspects (mouth feel) such as mushy, grainy, seedy, fiberous, watery, firm, soft, dry.  Then there is sweet or not sweet or average sweetness.  What flavors are detected, berry? (which - strawberry, blackberry, raspberry), melon(honeydew, cantalope)? honey? grape? peach? cucumber? nutty? scale of 1-5 figgy flavor?, others?

What makes Black Madeira so unique in its taste?

Hmmm, after looking at Dennis' recent reply, maybe it should go something like this....

Melon.....slight, moderate, strong, none
----describe (honeydew, cantalope, other)

Sweet......slight, modertate, strong, none

Honey.....slight, moderate, strong, none

Figgy....slight, moderate, strong, none

Berry....slight,, moderate, strong, none
------describe (blackberry, strawberry, raspberry)

Acidic.....s, m, s, n

Skin....thin, med, thick

etc, etc, etc

Other comments......2 weeks rain before harvest, figgy flavor developed later in harvest, has brown sugar type flavor, very rich flavor --------something along these lines

Ok Dennis now you know what we want. Your figs all listed on those 2 charts. You are one of the most colorful commentators of figs here. I remember the list you did before had me salivating. It might even be cruel to do it this time of year, but torture us.

And I want to know what happened to 11 don't you like that number?

I think 11 is Bad Fen Sui.

Suzi... Ha!  I think!  I don't know!! :-)

It's too bad I've only tasted a few different varieties of figs, since I'm pretty good at assessing taste.

I do think it's prudent to mention about ripeness stages.  For example, a store-bought mission fig is not especially nice tasting even when slightly unripe.  OTOH, I usually can't stop myself from eating barely ripe Petite Negri, which are very bright sweet acid, and they have to be very unripe to be bad.  A truly ripe Mission fig has a certain kind of sugar taste that isn't very berry like to me, but is strong tasting and full.  Has a nice, stiff, almost cruchy texture with seed crunch.  Doesn't taste much different than the dried example, but not too similar to a Celeste.  A truly ripe PN has a complex taste (strawberry, fig, wine/mulberry, musk), with the acid dimmed down a bit, but still bright enough to be intense on the tongue with a very jam consistency and softer seeds with less crunch than barely ripe PN.

Of course, the real issue is that location tends to matter.  A VdB will give good fruit most anywheres, but a Petite Negri definitly has a tendency to want real heat for good fruit.  However, a PN will give a good tasting fall crop in cool weather.  I do not get but one or two, but while they are very simple, relative to spring and summer crop, they're still good and sweet.

So I think the best way to go about this is as one former member suggested, sorta.  Pick some 4-6 archetypal common figs that people will not genuinely have trouble buying trees of, and have everyone relate the figs to the archetype.  How much does a Hunt differ from a Green Ischia.  Or a JH Adriatic differ from a Stella, or Kathleen Black from a Mission, and make the distinction on how berry, how solid the taste is, how sweet, how figgy, how aromatic, etc...

Given my experience with puerh tea, people simply do not stick with any organized category of characteristics that one fills a database field with or tick off.  Instead, what happens is that more and more people know what you mean with certain words in certain context, because they've had more experience tasting more different kind of figs and have had the light bulb go off on, say, "this is a velvet fig".  Not that I know what velvet means now, but what I'm saying is that a common language shorthand will pop up.  Sooner or later, when Dennis talks about "rich" figs, more and more people know what Dennis means, and even Dennis changes his idea of what "rich" is to agree with everyone else he know's idea of "rich".

What is puerh tea?  And how does it relate to figs?  Just curious...........
Suzi

tasty could be different things for different people. VdB, when weather cooperates, is amazing fig. but i like Paradiso Gene which to me is very humble fig with no strong taste. i'm sure to some Paradiso Gene will be lacking in character. VdB would be like super fig with all the bells and whistle going off at first bite. 

when i say tasty, that fig made me like i want to eat another one. hopefully, i'll have more to eat this year :)

Puerh tea is tea (usually sold in cake form) that people generally age.  Given the cost for buying all that tea in a cake, and the trouble of storing it for the years and decades to get that old tea taste, there is a lot of judgment about which tea is worth it.  So unlike more carefree attitudes with other teas, there is a strong effort to be critical about puerh tea.  We also do it because older, well stored tea is incredibly expensive, and one hopes one day to have lots of good tea by the time one is retired, twenty, thirty years hence.

How it relates to figs?  Not too much other than that it's speculative about which fig variety will do well where you are, 5 or 6 years down the road with a mature tree.  And of course, evaluating taste.  It's not any more relevant than high end wine or cigars or cheese or anything else that's designed to have a very strong initial taste and using time to mellow it into something expansive on the tongue.

I think the most important thing about this hobby has these aspects:
First, figs are an easy and adaptable tree fruit to grow.  They can be experimented with, much like any gooseberry!

Second, figs can be a lot better than most Americans can give credit for, due to a lack of high quality fresh fig varieties.  Remember, a Golden Delicious or Stayman Winesap are very good varieties that are still available for the average American.  Contrast that with Brown Turkey figs.  We're still in the stage of discovering which figs tastes nicest grown where, you know.

Third, I think that boutique table figs--good boutique table figs, not badly grown Kadota, BT, or indifferent Missions, have potential to be a pretty good cash crop for many areas of the country, particularly in the US South, and I do believe Suzi has designs on trying to make wines.  Figs has just never had a decent marketing effort behind them, and most breeding programs in the US have been stunningly unambitious, like figs that make an appetizing flesh color when dried.  Moreover, we can barely be bothered to name high quality new figs like Emerald Strawberry.  Like pawpaws and cherimoyas, figs deserve better recognition than what they get, and they are far more agriculturally friendly than annona species.

This board is an important part in getting across this message, and giving people who want to try their hands at something commercial or just an occasional tasty treat a head start is important in expanding normal people's horizons about what really tastes good or interesting.  I like to think that good Italian cooking helps protect Italians from worst of their dysfunctional political system, for example.

Fig Connoisseur?  Me?   HA!  That's funny!  I love going to UC Davis.  And if Jon goes this year, then I'm in!  It is truly amazing to taste and eat so many figs all day long.  I just love figs!!!!!

I read the comments last night and could not comment because the wife and I had to watch Project Runway!  I love that show!  Ok, now that I had a chance to read over the comments again.  I seem to again with Suzi and Steve.  Figs do have more of a taste that sweet.  But sweetness is all about timing when you pick, heat and water.  So, I'm going to keep my Flavor/Taste category.  I'm going to call my first category the "How Good is it" category.  Then we have the "Flavor / Taste" category.  Then "Texture" category.  Then we have the "Sweetness Scale" category.  Black Maderia is in my opinion the top of the richness scale.  It doesn't have a honey flavor, it doesn't taste like sweet strawberries, its not acidic, its just a well balance rich thick flavor.  It's kinda like eating a teaspoon of thick mild Sorghum molasses with a sweet White Marseilles.  White Marseilles is an excellent tasting fig BTW.  They are one of the first that ripen in my area (June).  Mine are light green when ripe and show cracks all around.

Steve, I think Watery is a category all by itself.  Cucumber, peach, grape, strawberry, honey dew, etc are all flavors in my opinion.  But they do definitely describe how a fig taste in detail.  Hmmmm, I might call these Flavor taste.  You're right about the physical aspects too!  But I think time picked should be a factor.  I also like your comments Steve in post 12!  Yes!  I like that.

So, you guys want to know what happened to number 11?  Well, wanted to save this one for futher discussion.  Have you ever eaten a fig that was flat out amazing and you just could not stop eating them?  This fig is definately above 10 but you know other figs are a little better in flavor and taste.  I call 11, "Mental".   For example, Smith, Excel, Zidi, San Peitro, Black Ischia, Tacoma Voilet, California Brown Turkey, Mission and a few others are Mental!   They are above 10!  My wife is my taster but I'm the Joker in the deck, so sometimes I trump her calls on taste.  She didn't think Black Madeira is a 12.  I disagree because of its thick richness and Smith isn't too far behind it.  She did say Ronde de Bordeaux was a 12 but I'm not sure I agree.  To me, it's a 7.  Now, Toni's Brown Italian is a 11.....maybe 11.5!  But, De la Senyora a definate 12!

I realize taste is different to all people.  The sweetest fig I ever tasted is White Triana but it's not rich.  After I tasted my first WT, I called Joe and order 4 more!  To me, WT is a 9.  To me its a 9 but to another person it might be a 10.  To me tasty says nothing about how a fig really taste.  For instance, on Bass's web site, he describes some of his figs.  Those he list as "excellent" spike my interest but those that are just "tasty", I overlook.  So I have no idea what he means by tasty.  But when you read Ronde de Bordeaux, he calls it "excellent".  I bought my RdB from Bass around 4 years ago.  I had no idea how the figs taste.  At that time I was just buying fig trees and I knew he traveled around the world seeking figs.  After a few years in a pot, I planted it in my orchard.  I agree with Bass, it is excellent...... but a 7 according to my scale.

cheers,

Ok now I understand "POA - Pass Out Amazing (12!)" of course you can't keep eating them in a

unconscious state. A 11 you can just keep on stuffing them away, but I think you should change the tittle to "Lays" Because  you can't just eat one

I really would love to go but that whole lack of a BR for 10 hours is a bit of a turn off.

Dennis you type in part "Black Maderia is in my opinion the top of the richness scale. "

It depends what one considers the taste of - Rich.
For example -rich in Love
Rich in wealth
etc

 Madeira is not rich in fig taste some say figgy but perhaps in a desert class of figs if there is a such a class.
Example a Berenaulese wine is considered a desert wine - i must say its very good.


Perfect example well just in my opinion and in this Ray Givens video  starting at about the 2:20 mark

Great idea!   How about a 'lowest' category

POS - (0)

ok, PaulandIrene, from 2012, what fig would you say is a POS, 0?