The flavors of figs have been described many many many times in the past by fig lovers as "berry like", "melon-y", "raspberry", "strawberry", "complex", and sometime, even "peachy" or "banana".  This is kind of weird to me, as if fig does not have its own flavor.  Have you heard anyone describe the flavor of peach as "apple" like?  I once was in a pick your own peach orchard where there is a cultivar called "White Lady".  It is a white flesh type and very sweet with an aroma that is refreshing, and less peachy.  But I would not call it any other way.  I call it White Lady peach flavor. You want to know what it taste like?  Sorry, I will give you the address of that orchard, and you sample it there yourself.

Why in the fig community we need to do this on figs?  If I want to have something like raspberry, and taste like raspberry, I eat a raspberry.  Not a fig with that flavor, not a black berry or whatever.  

Can we give figs their rightful place in the fruit world that they deserve?  After all, they are figs.

On a different note...I have read, and analyzed the many descriptions of fig flavor about different cultivars.  It appears to me that those with "complex", flavor or "flavorful" are in general belong to those medium sized, late ripening fig cultivars.  I do not know if the long ripening time has anything to do with the flavor, but I can not help to think that the time has something to do with it.  It does take time to build characters in just about every thing, through the raining days, drought, high heat, cold nights, sun light etc...Those smaller cultivars ripening early may not have the time to build that.  But heat and sunshine should be enough to give them that figgy, sweet flavor.  Just my two cents.

  I, for one,  really appreciate growers that take the time away from their never-ending 'to-do' list, in order to give a more descriptive appraisal of a cultivar's flavor.   With over 3,300 named varieties, and thousands of unknowns,  how else might a person make an informed decision about investing several year's worth of effort and expense into a particular cultivar?  

  Meteorito absolutely has a Cinnamon/Cherry flavor...
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.  Which bears no resemblance, whatsoever, to the flavor or texture of Longue d'Aout...
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....or to Watermelon Wine:
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....So, which of these is your "figgy" flavor?????????

Or, are we shackling all figs to have to bear the branding of Calimyrna's flavor as "fig flavored'?  ;-)

   

I get what you're saying.  We need a baseline.  Most figs taste identical...like...a fig.  They have that distinct figgy flavor.  See, it's hard to describe.  ha!
A complex flavored fig has more of a rich, bold characteristic.  That's how I define 'complex' anyway.
As for longer ripening time = better tasting, perhaps, but Ronde de Bordeaux is a good example where they have that unique, somewhat complex flavor but ripens sooner than most varieties.
But I understand where you're coming from.  Figs taste so similar from one to the next that you have to really think of another fruit flavor to categorize those unique undertones.

Fig taste and ratings are very subjective and not everyone has the trained and refined taste skills to differentiate most taste tones.  
Add to that the taste differences produced by location (terroir) and it is understandable how some people tasting a fig can shrug their shoulders at some descriptions.  

This is very similar to wine connoisseurs.  How many people do you know that scratch their heads in bewilderment as an expert wine taster describes an expensive wine and says its worth every penny of the $150 for the bottle?  This is why there are wine tasting courses/diplomas maybe we need fig tasting courses..lol

However describing a fig as having berry tones does not mean it tastes like a blue berry or a strawberry just simply that a berry tone can be tasted.

The funny thing about trying to nail that unique flavor or undertones is that  one may draw on his own experience to describe them.  The difficult part is that they derive from a combination of chemicals/molecules mixed together with various amount of sugar that gives these unique tastes.  One person's experience may not be the same as the next person.  So it can be hard to relate to.  

My son is into organic things, and buys organic banana and eggs, etc...My wife was led by him to believe that the organic egg (you know, those brown eggs) taste better.  So one day, she bought a dozen home to try them out.  I was skeptical about this claim, so I did a blind test on her with this egg and a regular egg.  These eggs were cooked in the same pot and time.  Then I asked her to pick one that taste "better".  Of course, she pick the wrong one, or should I say, she guessed wrong.  Same with the organic banana, when she ate one and was amazed that it is very sweet...therefore proclaimed that organic banana taste sweeter than non-organic...You know where this led to...

I for one, have difficulty to nail that unique figgy taste.  It is easy to tell that they taste differently, such as sweetness, crunchiness, jam-ness, juicy-ness, or "figgyness", but hard to nail that subtle difference beyond the basic fig characteristics, at least for me.  I am sure that as time passed, we may use different adjectives on that same fig flavor.   

I might get some heat for this, but if grown under the same conditions most figs taste very close to each other and the differences in taste are so subtle that it won't make any difference as long as I'm eating a fully ripe fig.
Of course, some trees are better producers and some figs are sweeter, some are juicier, some are larger, some have more seeds or thicker skin etc...
But in the end they all have this unique flavor that makes them figs. So when using watermelon, raspberry and berry etc..., it's more poetry than fact.
In the absence of the wasp, when it comes to taste, most figs will fall under the same classification in my book, except for a few outliers.
Perhaps it's a matter of preference,but I always suspected that the late ripening varieties have a more complex flavor than the early ones, but if your season is short then there's nothing wrong with the early ripening varieties.
I will not mention the outliers at this time, for fear of creating a firestorm, it's enough to say that if you have a striped fig, a dark fig, a green fig, a yellow fig and a red fig, then you've captured most of the flavor spectrum.
If growing your fig trees in pots, the only challenge that remains is to find the right productive variety for your zone and you're on your way to enjoy eating some great figs.
If you're a collector of trees, then it's a different subject.

Instead of tagging on fig cultivars, should we do the other way around instead?  It may help, no?

Ken love had chefs describle and rate many varieties of figs.

http://www.hawaiifruit.net/figtastescale.htm

Thanks a lot, Figgysid1.  I have seen this before but did not give it a thought as I did not know where this came from.  Now I knew it was from chefs.  There are quite a lot info in the spread sheet, and hard to read or compare among figs, so I reorganized it based on the taste alone.  Those qualitative descriptions not related to taste, such as size, skin and flesh firmness, crunchiness, and descriptors were moved to the right side as references, not in the calculation for taste/flavor rating.  The result is in a spread sheet file in the yellow colored column for comparison purposes.  The sum total for three categories is 20, and the highest figs...go to 153-17, Black Madeira, Ischia White, and Panache at 18. Ischia White, Panache and Flanders were rated twice with slightly different scores.  I do not know why...Maybe they were tasted by different groups or they came from different lots.

With this chart, it becomes easier for me to decide what to try based on taste, along with other tributes, such as size, firmness, and crunchiness.  The latter are mostly personal preference, I think.  For me I'd like to have medium to large size figs.  But most important of all, I think once you have selected a few varieties you like, check out their suitability in your climate if planted in ground.  After all, you do want to have abundant fig harvest season after season.  I can not speak for those who are collectors, or who live up in the north.  But a green house can be useful to plant them in containers, and still can enjoy these figs.  

The list is not quite complete, as a lot of other fig cultivars were left out.  But it is better than nothing, especially for those newbies who have to rely on piece meal taste reviews/comments of individual without consistent reference points or baseline.  

Out of four common fig trees that I bought from big box stores, some rated 12 and 15.  Not bad at all.  I'd think that above 12 (passing grade I'd say) is pretty satisfying.  Besides, We do not know what these chefs had with respect to the ripeness of the figs.  A little bit off and the flavor of the figs can be off a lot.  I'd think the tasting evaluation might have considered a few critical points to do this test.

Celeste taste like a sugar fig and Oregon prolific is like a brown sugar fig. I could just eat sugar or brown sugar but its something about the flavor combined in the fruit that makes it special.
Peters honey is the only honey fig I have ever had but perfectly ripened you get an intense burst of honey fruit flavors.. Once you have a pure honey flavor like that I just cant see growing any other honey fig.

The berry flavored figs are my favorites. I have one that tastes like a sweet cherry berry. So berry flavored but sweet cherry like flavors really dominate the palette with this one.

Sweet Diana really opened up this year and instead of just being sweet like last year it was sweet berry this year.

My in ground hardy chicago also has berry flavors.. Very good fig but I find that from year to year the flavor varies slightly. So many factors involved in the flavor of figs IMO.. Maybe in Southern Ca they taste the same every year but here in Southern Oh the climate varies a lot from year to year.

Blue, what is Meteorito? Never even heard of that one before.

The funny thing in all of this is I have never had a fig that tastes like a fig. That fig flavor I would say is more like a fig newton.

This one, Meteorito, does not ring a bell to me either, so is its taste according to Blue.  The only way I can understand and appreciate its taste is to try it myself.  But then again, there is no way for me to do that, out of thousands of varieties around the world, named and unknown.  Being a modest, amateur gardener, I will only focus on a few that is productive, and taste great to my palate. 

Jeff, I agree with your comments about those honey figs, such as Celeste and Italian Honey.  I think classifying these figs as Honey type does not do them justice.  They do not taste like honey at all to me.  Describing them in such a way, even using the word "undertones" does not seem quite right to me.  

I only tasted a few types of figs.  My impression was that they all taste great in their own way when eaten ripened ones right off the tree.  In fact, I have not had a bad ones no matter the cultivars.  If they are not ripe enough, I can only take a couple of them before my taste buds and lips feeling smacking, in a bad way. That is the difference the same fig variety of varying degrees of ripeness made on me.  I probably would not comment on the flavor of less ripened ones, even they are somewhat sweet.  

I describe it the same way I describe wine when my wife drags me to a tasting. Bold yet Demure.

Hmmm...Bold yet demure.  I like it, William.  Do you mind if I borrow your phrase when I see fit?

Drew, I have been to several peach orchards in SC and Georgia where both claimed to be the world capital of peach.  I think some would disagree, but it won't matter to these States and growers there. These orchards offer quite a few varieties of peaches, with cultivars named after the skin or flesh colors, or places or person who developed them.  I have yet to see they named their cultivars with a different fruit or flavors.  Maybe I have not been to other orchards, or maybe the owners are a bunch of "PROUD" peach farmers.  

The White Lady peach I mentioned previously is the one that I crave for after I (and my wife) took the first bite of a perfectly ripened one off the tree, among other cultivars.  That was more than ten years ago.  Of course, these cultivars are all great in their own way, but to us, we like it the best.  When we paid our way out of the orchard, we talked about this particular cultivar with the clerks/owners there.  They just smiled with a flair of understanding of what we were trying to say to them.     

Use it whenever you want to.