Mango purists (and I count myself among them) will rant about which mangoes are best until the cows come home. We’re pretty unanimous in our hatred for that hard red football known as Tommy Atkins, the variety that most often passes for “mango” in these parts, especially in the off-season, in the way that Macs or Golden Delicious tend to be what most people think of as an apple, neglecting the hundreds of other varieties.
In my local supermarket lately, there has actually been an assortment of mangoes. Old Tommy Atkins is there, but as mangoes are in-season right now in the Caribbean (the season in India, specifically for Alphansos finished in early June), there were a trio of options. Since it’s rare to find so many varieties all in the same place – at least here in Toronto – we bought one of each to compare.