If you live somewhere with cold winters, you probably think of apples or bananas as the world’s most popular fruit. But across the tropics, where most of the planet’s people actually live, the mango wins easily. More than 50 million tonnes of mango are eaten worldwide every year, more than any other fresh fruit.
Mangoes have been grown in India for at least 4,000 years and are still part of everyday life there. There are over a thousand varieties, ranging from tiny green ones the size of an egg to giants the size of a melon. Each variety has its own flavour, from sweet and floral to spicy and tart.
A mango is a “drupe” - a fruit with a single large stone in the middle, like a peach or plum. Inside that stone is a flat seed that, if planted, can grow into a tree that bears fruit for 100 years. Some mango trees in India are over 300 years old and still producing fruit each summer.
