Boxes and pallets of melons and watermelons are beginning to arrive at fruit stores and supermarkets throughout the country and we will soon be in season! Even with the highest prices, some cannot resist being among the first to taste these delicious fruits. That is why, although everyone has their own technique, we usually hit several specimens with our hands to check if they are ripe before selecting the melon or watermelon that we are going to buy. According to a fruit seller, you don’t have to be a percussionist to choose a good melon: you just have to pay attention to three fundamental aspects.
Raúl Cárdaba has gained great popularity on Instagram, a social network where he has 165,000 followers (@fruterotiktokero), thanks to his videos cutting and showing all types of exotic fruits. On this occasion it is his father, José Cárdaba, the manager of the Vitaminas fruit store in Madrid (1 Aristóteles Street) who dismantles the secrets of a much more mundane product, the melon. The veteran fruit seller explains in a recent publication that he has already accumulated more than 4,000 likes, which customers should pay attention to when purchasing a good one.
The first sense to use is still touch. Cárdaba explains that, instead of hitting the specimens, the ideal is to grab it to test its weight. The heavier a melon is, the fuller and juicier it will be. The fruit seller recommends choosing a heavy melon, since that means that “the slice is fat,” he says.
Secondly, check that “the ass”, that is, the stem part, is dry. This means that the melon has detached itself from the bush naturally, when it was already ripe, and therefore, that it has not been plucked green.
Finally, simply take a look at the color of the skin or “bed” of the melon. Try to choose one that is not too colored or too white. A bright green melon will need even more time to finish ripening, while if it is yellow it will mean that it is already overripe. That is why the ideal shade of a melon is a medium green with yellow spots.
Once opened at home, the yellow seeds will indicate that it is a juicy and ripe melon, as seen in the video. If you check this when you return from the fruit shop or supermarket, you have made the right decision and you are ready to enjoy the summer fruit par excellence!
