Where I live, far from avocado country, it’s not unusual for organic avocados to be $2.50 or $3 each.
“Oh, waaah, you big crybaby,” locavore purists might argue, “avocados are expensive because you live in Seattle, so stop buying non-local food!”
To which I reply: “The zombies can have my guacamole when they pry it from my salt-covered, tortilla chip-holding fingers.”
In any event, if you are paying $3 for a single avocado, you want that avocado to be freaking perfect: soft but not bruised, fully ripe but not rotten.
But I suspect many avocado lovers have experienced, as I have, the disappointment of slicing into their avo only to find brown streaks or dark, rotten bruising on the inside.
Gross.
Here’s how to make sure that never happens again.
Before you commit to a specific avocado, look for all the external signs of ripe-but-not-rotten. With a Hass avocado (the variety we tend to get on the West coast), the skin should be very dark green-to-black and bumpy. The fruit should feel heavy and firm, with no obvious smooshy parts or flat areas.
Now here’s the trick. Once you’ve got a good candidate, take a sneak-peak at what’s inside. Discreetly flick the dry stem off the fruit.
If you see a brown patch under the stem, put that avocado back. It will be gross inside.
Like this:
But, if the fruit right under the stem is bright avocado yellow-green, you have a winner. Your avocado will be great.
Like this:
This technique has never failed me.
Haas avocados purchased hard and green will ripen nicely on the counter over several days. However, once your avocado hits that black-skinned stage, don’t delay in enjoying it. The difference between a soft and creamy avocado and a brown-streaked, half-rotten one is only a few days on the counter.
Thanks for the tip. I’ve always gone with how the pointy end feels. If it’s firm it’s ok, but it isn’t fool proof.
Thanks for the great tip! I love avocados too, but I have had that gross experience too many times.
You have just changed my life! I love avocadoes and the disappointment at cutting open a manky brown one can loom rather large. Yes, that makes me shallow. And yes, I know there are bigger issues in the world but I’m with you as far as loving these amazing delectables. There are essential eating in my world.
I don’t think that makes you shallow. I have had days entirely ruined by rotten avacados, because I don’t have a lot of play money, so I don’t treat myself to one very often, and when I do, I save up so much anticipation for them. Literally this has caused adult temper tantrums in my kitchen. :) Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Erica for the great tip. I love avocados and it’s so disappointing to get one and then have it be gross inside. Hope to see you at the MENF this weekend!
I’m only a little embarrassed by how excited I am about this tip. I am going to do something I rarely do in writing… give you exclamations points!!…!!!!!…!!!!!!!!!
I couldn’t agree more!! I am now ecstatic to go shopping for my perfect avocados. I will have a smug look all day. Yeah, betcha didn’t know what I do. Lol
I miss my college town where “Watch for Falling Avocados” signs were a common street fixture.
I have to know where this is as I may have to move there!!!!!! :)
Great tip! I live in the heart of avo country – and I didn’t know that! Don’t feel too bad about your prices: ..organic avos here generally cost $2.50 each, too:( Fortunately for us, the tree we planted 20 years ago(!) has a decent harvest for the first time ever. (ya really gotta give those babies what they want!)
Great tip, and I love your blog in general.
It is “discreetly,” not “discretely,” for this usage, by the way.
Change made. Thanks for the catch.
Thanks for the great tip! I live here in the Pacific NW, too and unfortunately have had way too many avacado tragedies. I’m going shopping today and will try out your tip! Thanks again!
Good tip. As the daughter of a So-Cal avocado farmer, can I put in this plug? Buy California avo’s! They’re sort of local. More than Chilean ones at least :) I also agree that they are essential to life.
Wow! I grew up with my grandparents having an avocado tree in their backyard, yet I never knew that trick. Thanks!
Thank you! Great tip!
Great tip, thanks. Also — avocado aficionados probably already know this one — you can put an unripe avo in a brown paper bag for faster ripening.
This also works for any other fruit.
To be honest, and maybe I’m just not very picky, your first avocado doesn’t look that bad. I’ve seen much worse, like really, really brown and gross. That just looks a little bit mushy around that one edge. I don’t think the taste is that greatly affected either until it gets into the very mushy, brown stage.
If you can get the large, green avocados that are the best. I lived in Florida for 8 years and loved the peak season when everyone’s avocados were ripe and in abundance—but now I’m ‘suffering’ through non-local avocados here in Texas again.
Avocados are a miracle fruit to me ever since I found out that avocados don’t ripen on the tree so avocado farmers don’t need big warehouses to store them in to ripen.
Thanks for the tip! I live in the PNW too and I love my avocados. Another tip that I’ve found helpful is to put ripe avocados in the fridge. If you put them in at that just right stage, they stay that way much longer than they would on the counter.
Definitely a good rule of thumb! I personally like to go a step further and buy avocados as hard as rocks–that way they don’t bruise in the bag on the way home.
I agree with Misty. Put them in the fridge just as the get to the perfect stage. They keep unbeliveably longer. Thanks for the tip on buying though, I will def use it.
Yes! Great tip. I do this all the time and it works well for me!
They freeze well, so if it get ripe and you are not ready for it, peel and seed then toss in a ziplock. Freeze. Will last a good long while that way. He do grow “cados” here in Houston, but they are still expensive. I think it doesn’t matter where you are, if that fruit is not in season. We don’t have apples here. They ship them in from your hood and they are not good like they are up in Wash. state. So, you do have your blessings.
I was told by a grower to always buy our avocados with the stem attached. And we do find that they last way longer. We seldom loose one. We also buy when very hard.
I LOVE this tip! And who wouldn’t, if they’ve ever cut into a bad avocado? I must say though, ever since I learned how to make avocado nutella, the word “bad” has been removed from my vocabulary. I now look at each opening as an opportunity for either sweet or savory deliciousness.
I love the tip! I love creamy dreamy avocados too. I wonder if you have ever ordered from Azure Standard? They are based out of Oregon and I will be getting my organic avocados from them for $1.00 each.
Jamie…they grow Avacados in OR? Mine always freeze and die :(
Ha Ha @ Dea Lowry, no the food group I order through is based out of Oregon, their organic avocado’s come from California this time of year. http://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/8433/ here is a link to the info on their avocados it won’t show you the price if you do not register but right now they are 3 for $3. How ever they do grow a lot of the fresh items they offer in Dufur, OR by the way I do not work for them I am just an avid supporter of people who try to start something good and make non gmo organic food available for an excellent price to those of us who are interested. I offered this in response to who complaint about paying $2 or $3 each for avocados.
This makes me want to kiss you.
THANK YOU! There’s nothing worse than spending way too much on a GD avocado only to find out that you can’t even eat it. I’m going to test this out ASAP. THANKS again. I’ll be tweeting you.
Nice tip- I’ll try this for sure… but I’d rather have a fuerte!
yum! i rarely buy them, mostly because they’re so expensive (because they don’t grow in nc either…but some other great things do!). they were 49 cents at aldi a couple weeks ago, hard as a rock. i bought four then went back the next day for 10 more! avocado was my main veg and fat source for a nice little while. so good! the last one or two had gone a little long.
has anyone had any luck slowing the ripening? i thought about putting a few in the frig for later ripening. didn’t know how it would work and feared the worst.
Yes, You can slow down ripening by putting unripe ones in the refrigerator. When I pick about ten, I keep 4 out and the rest away then start taking out one a day, for sandwiches and salads or anything.
thank you sunny. i’d seen other references to letting them ripen and then put them in the frig. good to know that it works to put them in the frig before they’re ripe too! makes sense.
They last a good long time in the fridge. I just discovered one that had gotten lost behind something … it must have been in there for *weeks*, and it was still yummy. :-)
The other thing this technique does is prevent your avocado from “stringing” inside…the strings are from the seed starting to sprout, but removing the stem will prevent it from sprouting. If it’s black then it’s already started to sprout.
I currently live in Central Africa and had an avocado tree in my yard until we moved about 2 months ago.
Why not just give a soft squeeze to test the firmness?
I’m always annoyed when I get to the avocado pile and people have picked off all the stems causing all the avocados they left behind to begin oxidizing from one end. Just wiggle the stem instead of removing it if you must. If it doesn’t wiggle a bit, its not ripe.
Good point Brian!
I was going to ask how picking off the stem affects the avocado and ripening.
We live in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, yes it is Avocado country and for most of the year we buy 10 Avos for $5. If I get to choose them at a roadside stall, I’d would never choose and avo where the stem is removed, they won’t last very long and can be streaky. If you want avos ready to eat test their ripeness by lightly pressing around the area at the stem, if it has a give your avo is ripe. The problem of people pressing the whole avo to see if it is ripe is that it bruises the fruit and it goes brown inside much faster. Thats why I would never buy Avos in a supermarket, cause everbody does their prodding. For those of you who live further away from the avo growing areas, contact the avocado growers direct and order a box full, delivered straight to your door and then us the instruction in this blog to stage the ripening process.
Thanks for the tip! I love avocado & have always wondered how to avoid this!
Great tip! Definitely going to remember this one next time I buy avocados.
As an aspiring NW gardener, I’m off to check out the rest of your blog!
DUH! Can’t believe 40 yrs in Avocado country and I didn’t figure this out. Thanks.
Great tip! Has anyone else experienced the tragedy of Trader Joes avocados? I have finally given up on trying them. Even if I buy them hard, they “ripen” straight to the rotten, black stage. At no point are they edible. What gives?
Amazing tip! I will stop by my neighbor’s avocado tree first thing in the morning (I live in Kenya and it is Avocado season :-)
Bless you Bless you Bless you! Wow!
AWESOME!!! Because I have been getting a lot of nasty ones of late. This is great and I will definitely make it a practice.
You’re Hilarious! Thank you for the secret code to being a guacamole whisperer
Brillient tip have wasted so much money in the past
I am with you on Avacados. They are just too good. Thanks for the tips!
Great tip. Thank you so much for sharing!! I have bought my share of bad ones. I have one question. I used to live in Kansas and often I would buy rubbery avos. How do you prevent purchasing those? By the way, I now live over the pass from you in Ellensburg.
Oh wow! Thank you for the tip!! No more yucky avocados for me!
Awesome! Thank you.
I have but one concern with this tip…once the stem is gone, I believe they go bad quickly. Am I wrong about this? I just always protect that stem because that seems to be the case for me. Now I’ll have to do some kitchen science experiments! :)
Actually avocados are one of those that you don’t have to buy organic. So don’t waste your money! Save it for those fruits and vegetables that organic is the only way to eat them. Costco has great price on avocados.
Great advice – it’s always an anxious time…avocado purchasing – and then the disappointment when it just plain stinks!
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Brilliant tip! Thanks so much. I agree that there are few things more disappointing than cutting into an avocado and finding it rotten.
Love learning and sharing tips. Do you also know that you can remove that seed by placing the “fruit” on a towel or cutting board and whacking a knife in the seed and then twisting it….the seed lifts right out.
pve
AWESOME tip! As a fellow quac lover, I’m right there with ya– come and take it you zombies!
Thanks for all the great tips. Also, good to know that I’m not alone in experiencing avocados going straight from unripe to rotten. But, when I get to eat one at the exact right moment, there’s nothing like it.
If you find a great buy on them, get them. Toss in ‘fridge; they ripen a lot slower in the ‘fridge.
(My normal prob with them is like bananas, gotta wait a few days after buying to enjoy, rarely are the ones in stores here over ripe)
Wow thats how a good avocado looks. I have never bought one that didn’t have a brown colored seed in it. What an eye opener. Thanks for the info.
I eat avos alllll the time, so thank you so much for this wonderful tip!
I’ve just discovered your blog, and I have been reading your posts about budgeting. My question is, for a 24 year old grad student living in a small apartment in the middle of town, in the harshest, coldest, part of the harshest, coldest state (other than Alaska), what do you suggest for gas savings/food savings – especially when it’s -60 F with the windchill?
Many thanks!
Well, I can honestly say I have no idea what -60 F feels like. I think you must be amazingly rugged to handle that. I know you’re asking about gas and food, but this link might be helpful since I’m guessing you have to spend a lot of money heating your place. http://www.richsoil.com/electric-heat.jsp It talks about heating the *person* rather than the room, and as such might be useful to cut down on utility bills (assuming you are covering those rather than your landlord).
The basics on gas savings are the same everywhere I think: avoid driving when possible, be super conscious about running errands deliberately, only when really necessary, and in the most milage-efficient order (ie, no backtracking), and keep your car tuned up to get the best possible milage. I like this post about doing the little things right to save on gas, since not everyone can bike everywhere (hello -60 degrees town) or can spring for a new Prius. http://www.survivingeconomiccollapse.net/how-to-dramatically-reduce-what-you-spend-on-gas/
For food savings, the easiest way to save money is to cook from scratch, from staple items. Yeah, I mean like beans and rice. (Then it’s easier to buy an avocado to top it all with!). If you are single or without kids, particularly, I think once-a-week big batches of stew, soup, chili, etc. kept in the fridge and eaten between my-eyeballs-are-bleeding study sessions is a good way to save time AND money. In general, the cheaper cuts of meat are also the most flavorful, you just have to know what to do with them. What to do with them is almost ALWAY “braise” meaning, cook slowly with a little liquid at a low temp. That’s what turns cheap-and-chewy meat into succulent, tender deliciousness. A crock pot is a good way to handle this from a convenience standpoint, and I think also at the lowest energy cost.
Thanks for reading. Hope this helps. :)
Awesome tip…I am one of those who gently “feels” the softness of the avocado. I eat almost one a day, so they are important to me. My skin is soft instead of dry, my hair shines, and I feel better than I have in years! A lot of that is due to raw foods and my favorite is the glorious avocado!
I am a big advocate of buying and using local food, I even wrote a book about it (www.foodfromourland.co.nz). If it is available locally I buy it locally, but if there is a superfood, for me it is coconut oil, I buy it in bulk where I can buy it.
Now I’ll be finding all the “rejects” with the broken-off stems in the bin!!
Still a great tip.
I saw a Mexican lady do this in our OKC grocery store, and asked her…she said the same thing…green under the stem equals good.
I can’t tell you how many times I have bought rotten avocados! Thank you for this post…LOVE LOVE LOVE!
I’m with Misti above…I don’t really see much wrong with the first avocado in your pics. Maybe a little over-ripe, but not rotten by any means. (But, I’m the same way with bananas; I like them VERY ripe.) Or maybe I just can’t stand the thought of an avocado going to waste.
I also don’t buy organic avocados. I’d never be able to afford them if I did. I’ve bought regular (non-organic) avos at Aldi for as little as .29, but they are usually .49 or .69 there. I try to pick out a few that are ripe that day, and several that have yet to ripen. I do the “press on the pointed end” method to detect ripeness.
I love guacamole, but my favorite way to eat an avocado is to just sprinkle it with coarse sea salt and scoop it out with a spoon. Yum!
how do the stores where you are buying the avocados feel about this. it is a great tip but i am concerned that the produce workers seeing us doing this might not be too happy. any experiences with this so far? i once got yelled at a store for touching the strawberries, ridiculous, because we all touch the fruit to see if we want to buy it, but it has made me reluctant to over- handle the produce and flicking off the tops of the avos may upset some store workers. what do you guys think?
Good point. Here’s my feeling: if you flick the stem and it looks good, for God’s sake buy that one. Don’t just flick for fun. Then, you’ve taken the avocado you’ve “marked” and no harm is done. If it’s black, then the avo wasn’t good anyway and maybe you just saved someone else from buying an icky avo.
I’d also say, if the produce people aren’t actively trying to sell you on the fruit and veg at that store, find a better store. At the Yuppie-Hippie market where I shop, the kids are given free fruit just for coming in and the people in that department will give you a slice of anything so you can try before you buy. You pay for it, in the sense that the produce is more expensive right off, but you also know your *real* cost per pound won’t double because you have to throw away half of what you bought.
That said, obviously only do what’s in your comfort zone. I don’t want to encourage people to get in fisticuffs with their local market. :)
thanks for the tip Iam in northern Wisconsin what a great tip and I love them but hard to find a good one
Thanks for the tip! I have noticed that avocados with a redish tint to the skin never seem to fail to be excellent. Also, I’ve noticed that the more bumpy the better. Thanks again!
A way to get your avocado’s to ripen faster is by putting them in a paper bag. My fresh green avocado’s have been ripe within 3 days or less with this method!
Thanks for the tip! I tend to buy them rock hard and ripen myself to avoid that, but if you do get one that is subpar, you can always make a face mask and condition your hair :)
Not only am I glad I found this post, I’m glad I read through the comments. The stringy veins one finds in the avocado ruins the texture too. I never knew that they were the avocado sprouting. As far as the brown under the stub of the fruit: will it predict bruises and brownness not under the stub? My Mom taught me about ripening avocados in paper bags. Certain fruits ripen that way too. Even she didn’t know this particular tip so I just shared it with her. Thank you!
My love for avocados began in Hawaii when my husband and I were there for our wedding/honeymoon. Several locals at the shops couldn’t wait to share their bounty and we indulged to the fullest! The horse staying at our rental property loved avocados too!
I love avocados and I love this tip! I’ve been using it for the past couple of weeks and it’s right on. I’ll be sharing your article with my blog readers, because avocados are one of the healthiest foods out there.
Thank you for this tip! I tried it out when I bought an avocado last week and got a perfect one! No more yucky avocados for me!
G’day, I live in an area in Queensland where there are many avocado plantations; yet, I too pay $2.50 per avocado at the supermarket and often have to discard the fruit. Not now, I hope with this simple tip. Thanks.
Brilliant tip! Thanks for sharing.
this is the greatest tip ever. thank you!
I’m sharing this on my blog as well–how did you discover this? It’s awesome.
I buy my avacados while they are green and still very firm. They ripen quickly without bruises and are fully ripe when the skin has turned black. Squeezing the avacados at the store causes them to bruise. I’ve seen peole squeezing the avacados after they have turned black for tenderness and this is a big no no. Also please, don’t pick the little cap loose. The avacado fruit is exposed in doing this and will be spoiled (start rotting) for someone else if you don’t buy it. I too had to learn how to determine how to buy them without all those nasty bruises. I cringe when I see people squeezing already ripe avacados.
Love avocado and it’s a shame to let them go to waste. Will apply your tip from now on. Thanks.
thanks for the tip! of course, i bought two avos this morning before reading this. :) we’ll see how they turn out
Good article and I like your pictures. As other people have mentioned, it’s really annoying to see people squeezing avocados as this will leave black bruises. It’s better to ripen them at home but your method seems far less intrusive, particularly if you’re going to buy it if it passes the test. If it doesn’t, then I guess it would have been bad anyway.
…….and if you happen to come across an avocado that isn’t ripe, but doesn’t have its bellybutton a/k/a stem, melt wax into the hole and the avocado will ripen properly without the stem end rotting!!
God idea! Do you just pry the wax out periodically to check ripeness…?
Just some further tips from Oz – never put ripening avocados near other fruit – the enzymes they give off causes the avocados to ripen unevenly and you open a gorgeous looking avocado on the outside to find it full of brown spots! Put them somewhere by themselves to ripen! Since I have been doing that, I have not had one single avocado go bad on me! As soon as they reach that slight give stage around the top they go in the fridge. I can’t live without my breakfast toast with avocado – as a coeliacs sufferer it’s the only thing that makes gluten free toast taste good lol!
yay thanks for the tip:D
Thank you! Oh, my have I been irritated and angry at supermarkets for this issue. I know it’s wrong, but they are incredible expensive here in Norway too, so when living on a tight student’s budget it is so disappointing when you can’t eat what you’ve bought. I will try to use this trick from now on. Hope it works! :)
BTW, just tried this this weekend. Thought oh , now I can pick a good avocado. No, was green on the 4 one I picked the nub out of but when got it home probably was able to salvage only about 1/3 of it. Had brown streaks all through it.
Definitely going to try this. Makes me very mad when I buy three avocados and get a thimbleful of usable flesh out of it.
Thanks for the tip. This worked really well for me. This is an excellent and simple way. You’ve just made my shopping that much easier!
Great tips! I came here as a result of a Google search… After many years I had abandoned the very idea of ever getting good avocados (most of them turning brown or never ripening right) and only eat them in restaurants because I have had so little success with them, so it’s great to know about the stem tip, the pointy end tip, the OK to buy rock hard tip (I didn’t know avocados can ripe normally on a shelf!) and the refrigeration after ripening tip. The power of the Internet never ceases to amaze me :)
But could you please consider that not everyone has perfect vision (I notice you are young and don’t wear glasses, Erica) and consider using a more legible font than this pale gray Times-like font that is so hard to read and seems to be the in-thing to do on so many web sites of late? One could think you’re afraid of speaking out ;)
Chris in the Great White North (Definitely NOT avocado country ;)
You have no idea how much disappointment you’ve saved me with this tip. I used to live in California and I was accustomed to fresh, perfect avocados all the time, so I never really learned how to check them. Now that I’m on the east coast avocados are *such* a gamble. This is seriously going to improve my culinary life, thank you so much.
nice tip
The way I remember it is “Green is good. Brown… put it down!!!”
Great tip!!!! I have experienced that disappointment way too many times!
This is an interesting tip. I’ll give it a try. I’m one of those who are annoyed at finding so many avocados without their stems and the exposed area already a woody, barky brown. Conversely, I dislike finding spring green avocados that are as hard as iron that take a week to ripen on my window ledge. I make my shopping list and menu at the beginning of the week and find myself having to shift meals around when the avocados aren’t ripe yet.
(Something else I dislike is when I buy a bag of avocados and they are hard for days then suddenly all ripen at once! It’s a challenge to fit that many avocados into a few meals LOL)
Here’s something I noticed: different cultures enjoy avocados at different stages of ripeness. I like mine picture perfect, yet I’ve seen some of my many friends of different cultures enjoy them rock hard all the way down to just-about-ready-to-rot.
Thanks Lucie, I bought some today and checked as you had said……
This was the most helpful answer on Google. Thank you.
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What a fantastic tip!!! I’ve definitely had the smooshy, rotten avocado experience. Thanks for making sure it never happens to me again :)
This is amazing! Thanks for the revolutionary tip!
Thank you!! Nothing worse than getting ready to make guacamole and then slicing into a brown, mushy mess!