All About Atemoya
Atemoyas are custardy tropical fruits that are a hybridization of cherimoyas and sugar apples. Eating one feels like scooping nature’s pina colada from a fruity dinosaur egg! Atemoyas may be a difficult to find specialty fruit, but here at FruitStand, we look forward to sending you a beautiful package of them directly to your door from our small specialty farm partners. Keep reading to learn all about atemoya.
Atemoya fruits are a delicious hybrid between the sugar apple (Annona squamosa) and the cherimoya (Annona cherimola). Created in Miami, Florida in the early 1900’s, atemoyas are sometimes called pineapple sugar apple or mini soursop.
Biting into a fresh, ripe atemoya is like experiencing nature’s most perfect, creamy pina colada in fruit form. The white flesh is sweet, tart and tropical with flavors of pineapple, cherimoya and vanilla. Atemoya are at their most tasty and fragrant when fully ripe, and the white flesh is juicy, custard soft and scoopable.
These green, heart shaped fruits have a uniquely textured surface. As a hybrid of sugar apples and cherimoyas, atemoya have striking rounded green spikes at the top that flatten like scales toward the bottom of the heart-shaped fruit. They’re smaller than their cherimoya parent, about the size of a grapefruit.
Atemoya are harvested when they’re green, which is the natural ripened color of their peel. Browning around the edges of their textured skin will happen naturally as the fruit ripens. Inside, atemoya flesh is milky white, firm but effortlessly scoopable and juicy. At the center are large, inedible black seeds with pointed ends.
Store fresh atemoya fruits in a cool, dark ventilated area for up to two weeks. Once ripened, refrigerate for up to three days. You’ll see that atemoyas are ripe when there’s slight browning on the skin, and the fruit yields slightly to gentle thumb pressure.
Atemoya fruits are a hybrid fruit whose creation is credited to an American horticulturist in the early 1900s. Today they are cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world in North, Central and South America, Taiwan, the Middle East and Tanzania. Like it’s parents the sugar apple and cherimoya, they grow on deciduous trees that can reach up to 30 feet tall. Atemoya trees bear fruit in the late summer through the fall, from about August through October.
Atemoya fruits are a hybrid fruit whose creation is credited to an American horticulturist in the early 1900s. Today they are cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world in North, Central and South America, Taiwan, the Middle East and Tanzania. Like it’s parents the sugar apple and cherimoya, they grow on deciduous trees that can reach up to 30 feet tall.
Atemoya fruit comes into season in the late summer and remains through the fall, from about August through October. To be the first to know when FruitStand is shipping atemoya harvests directly to your doorstep, follow us on Instagram @Fruitstandcom.
Atemoya and cherimoya share a family resemblance for good reason. It’s because the atemoya fruit is a hybrid between cherimoya (Annona cherimola) and sugar-apple (Annona squamosa). If you love one, you’re bound to love the other, even though they’re different fruits.
Atemoya’s flavor has a more tart, pineapple flavor whereas cherimoya has a sweeter, vanilla flavor that’s often compared to ice cream! Both fruits have a tropical fragrance and soft, custard like flesh when perfectly ripe.
These green, heart shaped fruits have a uniquely textured surface. You can tell the difference between them by noticing atemoya’s rounded spikes and cherimoya’s flat scales. Atemoya are a bit smaller than the cherimoya, earning them the nickname “mini soursop”. The pointed, black seeds of both fruits are about an inch long and are interspersed in the fruit’s flesh.
Whether an atemoya is certified organic or not will depend on the farm where it was grown. At FruitStand, we only partner with the best specialty farms for exceptional quality of produce. When each harvest is available, we'll tell you whether the fruit is considered organic or conventional.
If you’ve ever wondered where to buy atemoya, we’ve got great news for you! FruitStand is proud to partner with small, specialty farmers to bring you exceptional quality atemoya. To be the first to know when FruitStand is shipping atemoya harvests, join our email newsletter!
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