How Long For Passion Fruit To Ripen

As mentioned before, passion fruits are lovely little jewels that grow in clusters on tropical plants. They can be consumed either raw or dried and mixed into desserts and drinks.

If you're ever in the mood to eat some fresh passion fruit, know that they will not ripen unless there is significant sun exposure. This includes direct sunlight as well as indirect light (think of them as two important factors in ensuring delicious berries!).

Also, remember that passion fruits taste best when eaten within an hour! If you leave them outside longer than one hour, they will begin to lose their flavor and potentially spoil.

I would also like to add that because passion fruits are so rich in antioxidants, eating a few helps promote skin health and may even help reduce wrinkles.

Ripe fruit has a lower sugar content

As mentioned before, passion fruits contain a special compound called glycosides. Glykosides are not only taste-making compounds in the passion fruit, but they also contribute some flavor and texture to other foods that you can eat it with!

The length of time that a passion fruit will remain edible depends on how ripe it is when you choose to consume it. When eating a fresh passion fruit, this factor is easy to account for as it generally does not take long until it is over.

However, if you want to make sure that all the juices have seeped out and there is no longer any soft flesh left, then consuming a dried passion fruit may be your best bet.

Ways to tell if your fruit is ripe

When buying passion fruits, make sure they are both sweet and acidic in taste. If there is no sour tanginess, then it has not fermented yet and will not work when you try to use it!

Also, check to see that they do not have white strings attached- those would be signs of dryness and poor fermentation. This could also indicate that the passion fruit was not fully dried before packaging.

There should be some browning or darkening of the flesh due to oxidation which occurs as the fruit ferments.

Usually, one batch will last us about a week depending on how we use them! Make sure to refrigerate any leftover passion fruits immediately after opening to preserve their flavor and texture.

Let it ripen

As mentioned earlier, most fruit is in season at some time of year. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to passion fruits! They are delicious when green but will not taste good unless you allow them to fully develop and soften.

Once they are ripe, they can be picked quickly and consumed within days. However, if you decide to store them properly, they will keep well for up to one week.

To preserve their flavor and texture, put your peeled passion fruits in an airtight container with a layer of plastic wrap under those already in the container. This will help ensure they do not oxidize or turn brown due to exposure to oxygen.

You may also like to add sugar to enhance their sweetness. The type of sugar does not matter too much as long as it is sweet. You want it to slightly sour the fruit so use white granulated sugar, coconut milk, plain yogurt, or cream.

Reasons fruit should be stored in the fridge

As mentioned before, most fruits will taste better if you let it ripen at your own pace. This is particularly true with passion fruits!

If you buy them fresh, they can have some slight tartness to them which many people enjoy but unfortunately not everyone does. The tasters who do not like this flavor usually prefer them when they are slightly sweeter or totally dried out.

The reason why some people dislike freshly cut passion fruits is because there are sometimes green bits left behind during processing. These green pieces contribute to the overall bitterness of the fruit and some people just cannot handle that.

However, this doesn’t mean that all leftover parts of the passion fruit are bitter. Some parts may actually have nutritional value!

What happens to the skin of the passion fruit after cutting?

The peel of the passion fruit contains several nutrients such as vitamin A, C, and iron. When the passion fruit is cooked or mashed down, the skin is also removed.

Fortunately, the skin is an important part of the passion fruit since we can either eat it raw or use it in recipes. Unfortunately, research seems to show that the skin is the source of the bacteriaecemia (bacteria) that causes diarrhea in some individuals.

Diarrhea due to bacteria can be serious so make sure to check the label to see if the peeled passion fruit has this warning statement on it.

Keep it cool

As with most fruits, the longer you leave your passion fruit in, the more flavor it will develop. However, too long of exposure can hurt the taste slightly.

In fact, when buying passion fruits, make sure they are not dried out! If they do not look very sweet and are dry and flaky, then they have been left too long.

If you find one that is almost expired but still quite juicy, cut it open and see how much juice it has- if there is a lot, then it has not spent enough time to sour and soak up all the liquid.

A good rule of thumb is to just buy them at the grocery store or produce market, as their sets should be around a half hour. Yours may be different depending on the person eating them and their preference.

Don’t put it in the pantry

When passion fruits are at their best, they must be picked immediately after being fully ripened.

Once you place a passion fruit into your mouth, it will lose its flavor quickly! This is why most grocery stores pack them in plastic bags or containers that have an elastic band around them.

This way, you can easily take one out and eat it right away without wasting any of its taste.

However, going through this process isn’t ideal if you want to enjoy all the pieces of the fruit later.

Because once they are removed from the skin, they will begin to dry out and lose some of their natural sweetness.

So how long do passion fruits keep well? General tips say that they will stay good for up to a week when stored properly.

Keep it away from apples

When your hands are just not willing to get sticky, try putting the fruit in the freezer! This will temporarily stop the softening process. Once frozen, you can pull out the fruits’s skin which should help scrape off some of the pulp as well!

This works especially well if you have a lot of passion fruits that are slightly overripe. You could also do this with fresh passion fruits when they are barely ripe so they are totally edible but just need extra chilling time.

Once chilled, cut the passion fruits open and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and white flesh. Then rinse the rest under cold water until it is smooth and creamy. Yum!

This article really does not recommend freezing them, but if you must, be careful not to break the shells too much as there is liquid inside.

How to pick fruit

Now that you have your fruits organized into types, it is time to learn how to identify when each one is at its peak flavor potential. The best way to do this is by timing!

Most berries begin to taste good as soon as they are picked- their natural sweetness coming from sugar in the plant. However, some require another day or so to really come through. This is because certain berry components are stored away within the plant before they can be tasted. These components include antioxidants and flavonoids that help preserve the health of the fruit.

When buying berries make sure to buy them at a grocery store or other source that has high standards for food safety. If there are any questionable ingredients such as alcohol used to dry the produce, then these nutrients will not get preserved and therefore never fully expressed.

That said, let’s look at some examples!

Strawberries

Strawberry season starts around May all over America. At this time, farmers start planting strawberry plants in fields and rows. Then comes harvest, where workers pull individual strawberries off the vine and put them in trays or boxes.

At this stage, what makes a great strawberry is not whether it is red or not, but instead if it is white or pinkish. A few days later those differences become clear!

If you eat a fresh strawberry during this period, it is likely to taste more like cheese than fruit.