Florida Can Satisfy America’s Avocado Addiction
Our allegiance to Hass is not sustainable
Every September, I post pictures of Florida green-skin avocados — glossy globes, some the size of my head — that I harvest from my backyard trees in Miami or buy in farmers markets. Without fail, the comments roll in: Florida avocados are watery. They’re not creamy. They’re not Hass.
They’re also not just a single kind of avocado. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published federal guidelines for commercially shipping almost 60 varieties of Florida green-skin avocados, not all of which are green, either (a few turn red, purple, or black). Brooks Tropicals was wily enough to rebrand the Florida green-skin avocado as the “SlimCado” — given its lighter oil content, it has 25 percent fewer calories per cup than Hass — and markets more than 70 varieties as such. Sometimes, the company is harvesting seven varieties, each of which has a peak season of four to six weeks, simultaneously. The shapes vary from globular to oblong to long-necked like a squash, and they weigh anywhere from one pound to two. But not only will shoppers barely notice the differences between them, Brooks Tropical’s marketing director, Mary Ostlund, said, “I get folks buying it thinking it’s a huge Hass avocado.”
