Mine are blueberries, and fresh-off-the-tree, fully ripe, apricots. :)

Pineapple and any type of melon.

Gina:

I like very sweet fruit but also high flavor. My favorites, best first, are nectarines, apricot, pluots, figs, sweet cherry, peach, grapes, blueberry, blackberry, apple, and pear. But it's close at top and bottom. I'd put nectarine to peach in the top tier and grapes to pear in the second tier.

Maybe I can find a few figs that will move them up because individual cultivars have a big influence on my ratings. My best fig so far Strawberry Verte does have a flavor that reminds me of the best nectarine. Growing conditions are critical. It's much much easier to grow a high quality SV than a high quality nectarine. Reason is the fig will dry on the bush whereas the nectarine needs months of critical water management to optimize eating quality. And in case anyone is thinking just dry the nectarine fruit, doesn't work that way. The same cultivar of nectarine can range from superb to bland depending on growing conditions.

Anyone interested in what it takes, IME, to optimize eating quality of stone fruit might like this: 

http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/growing-fruits-and-nuts/cultural-practices/greenhouse-fruit-growing/greenhouse-fruit-production-in-west-texas

Hands down, a dead ripe Mango IMO is the fruit of the gods!!! I do know this, store bought doesnt even come close to home grown fruit. Im getting ready to taste Lychee for the first time in about a month. I have 3 Lychee fruit just starting to turn red on my tree. This fruit may steal the show from what Ive read. Will find out soon! Next to Mango I would have to say Sweetcrisp Blueberries, Tropic Snow Peach, Navel Orange, Golden Grapefruit...........everything else. To keep this in context, I havent eaten but a couple figs in my life and they were okay, Celeste was good. I have one Black Madeira fig on my plant so that may be a game changer too.

I like really dark plums and bing cherries. I used to have a sweet cherry tree growing up and I'd sit in the tree and eat them

I like a nice ripe papaya. the taste reminds me of the way Easter Lilies smell.

I can't pick a favorite, it is an in the moment thing, there are many I enjoy fully. I really crave mangos and figs as the season arrives. I'd have to say figs are on my mind more than most fruit I grow or can buy. Mike in Hanover, VA

Red Raspberries

Figs aside, my fav fruits  are fresh mangoes from the tree and their cousins, papayas, also from the tree. But then, my work is in the Caribbean, so I am biased. Not too far behind for me are wild guavas, carambolas and custard apples. Back in the 'States, this time of year, what can beat a fresh Georgia peach?
  Custard Apple

Top of my list - peaches, if they are home grown.  And red raspberries.


Hopefully will have my first home grown nectarines next year, and more figs to try as well.

A fresh Juicy Peach, right off the Tree!! Love especially a juicy Elberta!

Of what I grow at home, the tops are red raspberries and Hardy Chicago fig, but a ripe muscadine comes a close second.

Blueberry is #1 and mango a close second.

To me there's a strong distinction between what one can grow or at least buy and those fruits that require a trip to the tropics, southern CA, or a greenhouse in order to eat a good one. My buddy speaks occassionally about the great Mango he once had in Mexico. Ya well so what, had one recently?

Likewise many areas of the USA can't grow a lot of the fruits mentioned, at least not high quaility ones. I can't grow half the fruits I mentioned without a greenhouse.

To me here's the bottom line. Figs are one of the highest eating quality fruits that can be grown in much of the USA with minimal effort and limited control of environmental parameters.

Wild strawberries

Tropic Snow Peach.  So good it'll make you slap yo' Mama!  So good that I only got one off the tree this year (out of 12+), my daughter, aka Locust Plague, cleaned 'em out real good.

Sun Mist and Sun Raycer Nectarines - really good in Florida.

And I doooooooo love a good Loquat.

Blackberries.

And Figs.  Then again, the human grasshopper and her mother both hate figs, so I actually get to eat what the birds dont help themselves to first.  It seems like I garden simply to feed everyone else.

I'm working on a sign right now, quote courtesy of Capt. John Smith of Jamestown Fame:

"He who shall not work, shall not eat"


... And it will be promptly ignored, Im sure :)

After reading others' choices, I'll add a few to my list. Bing cherries, good yellow peaches like Elberta, and navel oranges off the tree. A really good watermelon is mighty fine too.

Except for the oranges, unfortunately most of these additions I can't get other than at the supermarket - and like store-bought figs, they are pretty worthless. 

For the most part, if you can't get your fresh fruit right off a local tree, it's usually not worth eating. There are exceptions, but not many. Bananas come to mind. :)

Well . . . this is not an easy question to answer.

Certainly figs are at the top as I'm lucky enough to have tasted quite a few and expect to harvest figs from at least 150 varieties this year - provided the critters can be held at bay. That I have tried so many figs has only increased my appreciation of them and I crave them most of the year.

Mangos, lychees and pineapple are hard to beat when I'm in the tropics. Peaches picked warm and immediately eaten are hard to beat. Actually any truly ripe fruit (even Jack fruit) can be superb and the best fruit I've ever tasted during the time I'm eating it.

Cherries can be mind blowing certain years.

Ok OK if I had to pick just one it would be a perfect mango because the smell is one of the best things my nose and mind can remember beyond the experience, but as I can't get one in the US -- disqualified!  

Ok that leaves figs and peaches . . . and Esopus Spitzenberg Apples (Jefferson's favorite) oh yea, and a perfect honeydew melon and cantaloupe. Then again a perfect black plum, mmmmmmm . . .

This is too hard!! I once (it seems so long ago) lived in an artist colony in Costa Rica and I'm posting a picture of most of what $40 US can get you at the local fruit and veggie store. 

And my final answer is figs, mangos and peaches except anything I can get that's fresh, ripe and clean bumps them while I'm eating my favorite of the moment. Especially Lychees. And Pineapple . . .

Whatever is dead ripe at the time in the yard is usually best!

But THE best fruit is a dead ripe peach/nectarine IMO. Tastes like summer :)

Honorable mention to dead ripe cherries/strawberries.

A good peach, unfortunately there are a lot of bad ones, and mango, the smaller yellow one I forget what they are called. A fun day for me is to go the International Farmer's market and try new things. Mangosteen really impressed me the first time I tried it. Those of you around Atlanta if you have not been to the one on Buford Highway, make it a destination. I try to make it a few times each year to catch new things in season.

Donut Peach - Saturn Variety

in the tropics   Mango and Karat Banana

That is easy to answer.
Fully ripe fresh figs from home grown tree.
A little more of these are better than just a few.

After I am done with those,
.... then a good sweet mango or
shiny black Bing cherries.

Fully ripen lychees and peaches. Figs and cherries come in a close second  

1. Watermelon - if it's sugar sweet and ice cold
2. Sweet cherry
3. Plum
4. Concord grape
5. Apricot
6. Avocado
7. Cantaloupe




...and like fignutty, top of the list and bottom of the list is very close (except the watermelon is clearly king if the conditions are met)




regards,
bill o.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Mulberries. Not sure if they are really my favorite or if I'm biased because they ripen in May. At that point I've eaten nothing but grocery store crap for 6 months.

Figs would be on top of the chart followed by;
Pears, especially when cooked in wine into a thick syrup,
then Peaches freshly picked from the tree

Only the best figs at their best is truly top stuff.

If I were rich...
Peaches
Mangos, the turpentines and the deep carotene fruities
Cherimoyas
Mangosteens
rich grapes, like muscadines/muscats/wine/may as well include jaboticaba here too.
truly good pineapples
duku/langsat/etc--tastes like grapefruit candies

I prefer relatively rich tasting food and drink.  If it's a light taste, it better be very elegant

Honestly, if the *expletive* dogwood fruit wasn't so much trouble to eat, I'd include them as well.  Same sort of tropically carotene richness.

For me it's a toss up between mangoes and lychees. Course if you can out them together in a fruit salad...heaven :)

My answer changes continually:  whatever is ripe right now.

(I'm glad of lots of the choices above... figs, pears, cherries (I like the tart ones), peaches, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, limes, oranges, pears and peaches (deserve to be on the list twice)...  but I'm surprised nobody has yet suggested tomatoes).

Mike

All of the above fresh from the garden, but I love Fuyu persimmons best of all...

Everyone who put peaches at the top apparently hasn't been lucky enough to have a well grown nectarine. I prefer the low acid both white and yellow. They most definitely aren't low on flavor. But to be good must be grown with a long term water deficit. Most of the fruits at the top of my list are better grown at deficit water. I'm sure we have members here who have tasted the dry farmed fruits of Asian and Mediterranean climates. These are the same climates that produce the best figs. They also produce the best eating stone fruit and grapes. I try to duplicate those climates in my greenhouse. Lately I've been harvesting superb 24-34 brix Flavor Supreme pluots, Arctic Star nectarines, and Honey Blaze nectarines. It's taken me 40+ yrs of fruit growing to learn these methods and have the necessary environmental control. The Asians learned it over thousands of years. But it doesn't fit large scale agriculture, who are paid by the pound not for taste, and we're left with tasteless peach and nectarine picked 2-3 wks early.

To me certain figs are a shortcut to high-brix, high-flavor fruit that takes months of precision culture or special climates to duplicate with the other fruits.

[QUOTE=fignutty]Everyone who put peaches at the top apparently hasn't been lucky enough to have a well grown nectarine. [/QUOTE]

When can we sample some of your well grown nectarines, Steve?  :)

Seriously, I am thinking of adding a greenhouse or high tunnel for that purpose, just have to save up my pennies and convince my wife that my hobby needs to be taken to another level.

[QUOTE=eboone][QUOTE=fignutty]Everyone who put peaches at the top apparently hasn't been lucky enough to have a well grown nectarine. [/QUOTE]

When can we sample some of your well grown nectarines, Steve?  :)

Seriously, I am thinking of adding a greenhouse or high tunnel for that purpose, just have to save up my pennies and convince my wife that my hobby needs to be taken to another level.

[/QUOTE]

eboone:

For you anytime!!! It's just a matter of the good stuff being so highly perishable.

In your climate, with higher humidity and less sun, water management will be even more critical in a greenhouse or high tunnel. You might get the best bang for your buck growing figs in a high tunnel. The extra heat and longer season will add to your harvest and quality. I can get 6 months of harvest off Strawberry Verte in my greenhouse. There is no other high quality fruit that will equal that except maybe some tropical I haven't tried. You might manage 4 months of harvest, maybe more, depending on how much you want to heat.

Steve, I have a friend who, despite a full time engineering job, has a huge market garden including a high tunnel which he works on all summer, selling produce to local restaurants and grocery stores(farming is in my blood, he says).  Today I gave his wife a small fig plant which I rooted this winter, which I suspect will end up in his high tunnel.  One of the groceries he sells tomatoes, peppers etc to just had fresh CA figs selling 2 for $3; at those prices we are gonna talk about marketing figs.

Surprising how few even mentioned figs, being a fig forum and all. 

I would say figs, even though I have only tried 2 varieties, and the first time just last year.  But they were so delicious, so sweet... I thought I was eating candy.

Fresh Jersey peaches, strawberries, blueberries top my list.  And apples.  Good ones, not those so called 'delicious' varieties.  I like Fuji the best, but McIntosh, Cortland, and many others are very good as well.

For consistency, bananas.  You can tell nearly exactly how they taste from skin color.  I'm talking generic store bananas here, not the more exotic types which we rarely see up here in Delaware.

Ya, I gave figs more love than almost anybody. And I'm a stone fruit fanatic.

Surprised nobody mentioned pomegranates. Anybody ever tried Israeli star fruit? We did, & it was amazing.

Grapes developed by Elmer Swenson.  God rest his soul.

Gold Nugget tangerine and Ruby Supreme guava

I live in Niagara 1 of 2 tenderfruit belts in Canada so I enjoy amazing assortment of peaches, cherries, apricots, pears, apples, grapes, berries galore ...

But only pomegranate and prickly pears make me drool more than figs:)

Hi,
For me: Figs, tayberries, strawberries, pears, peaches , "Mirabelle" plum, big early ripening cherries , ... Well, almost everything I grow is good :) .

But on vacation in Portugal, Melon and watermelon fresh from the field - those are really hard to beat !
On vacation in southern France, Apricots are good - don't ask about figs - they don't sell before end of August or September... Well I've never seen them selling there ! And when asked, all sellers told me that in Summer I was too soon for figs .

...This ONE !

 

I love it!

Francisco

Aside from figs I have 2 different favorites. When I am home in NY my favorite is a fresh off the tree Honeycrisp apple in the fall. My other favorite is a small banana that we have every time we are in Jamaica. I usually will not even eat bananas at home because they are so bland. The taste of these little bananas is so wonderful to me that I wait all year to enjoy them. What a huge difference there is in letting things ripen properly. That's why I don't eat store bought"fresh" figs.

[QUOTE=lampo]...This ONE !

 

I love it!

Francisco[/QUOTE]

That looks like a winner to me!! Now if I just had the wasp and that ONE!!! Then I'd know if figs can be better than stone fruit.