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Persimmon: Why One Variety Tastes Like Honey While Another Makes Your Mouth Pucker
One persimmon can be crisp, sweet, and delicious. Another can leave your mouth feeling so dry that you wonder what went wrong. The surprising answer lies in a group of compounds called tannins.
Consider biting into an orange-colored persimmon. You expect the taste to be sweet. What happens instead is that your mouth starts feeling dry, as though there were some coating on your tongue and swallowing is becoming increasingly difficult. What about the second persimmon? It is a firm and juicy fruit with a pleasant sweet taste, much like an apple.
Why would such similar-looking fruits have such opposite effects? This is not due to anything as simple as sugar content, ripeness of the fruit, or subjective preferences. It all has to do with chemistry, behavior of tannins, and the amazing diversity of persimmon types.
Persimmons are a great illustration of the fact that nature conceals some really interesting science behind seemingly ordinary fruits. Once you learn the difference, you will definitely know what to look out for next time you see one.
Introducing the Persimmon: The Orange Fruit With a Split Personality
Persimmons are part of the genus Diospyros, one of the better-known cultivated species being the…
