The star of any summer picnic or backyard barbecue is a tray of vibrant pink watermelon. Everybody has hot takes about the fruit, including whether it belongs in savory recipes or not and the best way to cut it (we're team triangle). But one thing we can all agree on is that there's nothing more disappointing than one that's watery and flavorless.
Have you ever bought a watermelon at the grocery store and invested in it all your hopes and dreams of a sweet and juicy future, only to cut it open and find a bland, potentially mushy disappointment? Me too—one too many times.
As with all things, selecting a better watermelon improves with each try and practice. Next time you go shopping for this fruit, use these visual and physical cues to help you pick the ripest, sweetest, juiciest watermelon.
Wait Until It's In Season
This is really the golden rule when it comes to any fresh produce: Eat what the season offers. If watermelons aren't quite in season yet—it peaks in summer, from June through August—chances increase that you'll end up with a bland melon.
Check The Stem
Like with all fruits and vegetables, the best tasting watermelons are ones that had a chance to ripen fully before being picked. However, due to our current food production and transportation systems, many kinds of fresh produce are picked while they’re still unripe to ensure a safe and picturesque delivery into the consumer’s hands.
While watermelon can still continue to ripen a bit even after it's been picked, it won’t receive any additional nutrients from the soil through its stem. Instead of getting sweeter, this off-the-vine ripening process might just mean that the melon's flesh turns soft and mealy rather than crisp and flavorful.
One quick visual cue to check for ripeness is to examine the stem of the melon. Look for a dried, desiccated brown tail—the smaller the better: This is a good clue that the melon had ripened on the vine, and was ready to detach from the plant on its own. A green stem indicates that a melon was picked too soon, while it was still growing, before it was fully ripened.
Look For Distinctive Stripes And Rich Colors
To get the best and most trustworthy information, I had to call up the ultimate source of wisdom: my mom. She stressed that it was important for that characteristic tiger-stripe pattern to be as pronounced as possible, and for the dark green strips to be as deep and contrasted as possible.
She didn't quite explain why this aspect is important, but moms always seem to know everything, so I feel like we need to trust her on this one.
Spot The Golden Field Spot
If you've ever wondered what those blotches of creamy white, daisy yellow, or golden orange are on a watermelon's belly, those are field spots. They signify where the watermelon made contact with the ground while it grew.
Richly mustard yellow spots are good, while white spots mean the melon did not get enough sun and probably won’t be very sweet. The yellower the spot, the longer it stayed on the vine, and the sweeter it likely is.
Check For Russeting and Webbing
Just like with apples, superficial cosmetic flaws like russeting and webbing often indicate a good, sweet and juicy fruit. Dotted, textured webbing form as a result of pollination during the flowering stage, meaning the bees knew this was a keeper before it was even a melon. Trust the bees!
Check The Weight
Being 90 percent water, the watermelon should feel heavy for its size. If it looks big but feels surprisingly light, chances are it’s overripe and has started to dry out and won't be quite as juicy as it once was. Your internal scale will recalibrate with each watermelon that you hug and weigh in your arms.
Slap It Gently
One of my most memorable childhood embarrassments was going to shop for watermelons with my dad. He'd pick them up one by one and slap all of them, listening for that perfect sound. And to be totally transparent with you, I still struggle with picking watermelons from time to time based on this tip.
Give it a little gentle slap or tap. If it’s a dull, muted thudding sound, put it back. This kind of deadened sound usually means the rind is very thick and the melon has less of that refreshingly juicy red flesh to chomp down on. Alternatively, if you hear a crispy, resonant, hollow smack, and feel a subtle rebounding clap-back, that’s your winner. Listening for this golden sound will become more intuitive the more you try.
One day you will become so good at picking watermelons, you will spot The One from 20 feet away with your fine-tuned visual judgment. When that becomes the case, please comment down below with your tips for the rest of us mere mortals!
