By Ian S.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t like mangoes. I’m sure that there was a first time I tried them, but unfortunately I was too young to realize that it was an important introduction to one of my favorite fruits.

Since I was very small I have loved eating mangoes! After the skin was removed and the pit was taken out, my mom cut them into little pieces so I could eat them with a fork. That is still my favorite way to eat fresh mangoes. It seems like my parents don’t just go to the store and buy a whole mango very often anymore, though.

I seem to not be the only one who likes mangoes because the mango industry is worth about $65 billion. Mangoes were first grown in India 5000 years ago. Then they moved to the Middle East thousands of years later, in about 300 to 400 CE. Today, it was estimated that 21.12 million tons of mangoes were produced worldwide in 2024. Most mangoes are shipped about 4,500 miles to get to America and I am very grateful they do so. Otherwise I would be deprived of one of the greatest fruits in the world. Mangoes and parts of the mango tree are even used in traditional medicine. Some regions even call mangoes the “king of fruits”.  

My parents seem to have moved on to purchasing dried mangoes these days. Dried mangoes have a longer shelf life and are sold in big packages at Costco. This is important because I like to eat as many as I can cram into my lunch! Dried mangoes are pretty great. They can be sweetened, they taste good, they don’t go bad very easily and they’re still pretty good for you.  

There is one big problem with dried mango, though. My friends always want some of my dried mango and some just act like pigeons and ask me repeatedly for it at every school lunch.  My mom doesn’t mind buying me dried mango, but she doesn’t want to supply all my friends with endless dried mango pieces. She says I already go through enough. 

In my opinion, mangoes are superior to many other types of fruit, for instance grapes.  Grapes get holes in them and get mushy more easily because they are more liquid and have thinner skin than a lot of other fruits. The holes and mushyness of grapes are also hard to detect for the people selling them because there are so many and they can’t just inspect all of them.  Mangoes, however, don’t get mushy very easily and have a much thicker skin. Also, they can be looked at individually in case one of them is mushy or has holes in it. 

Mango farming is difficult but rewarding and its success depends on many factors like temperature, dedication, area, soil, etc. I hope the people who grow mangoes are adequately compensated for their important work.

Even though there are many good things about mangoes, there’s always the chance that you get a bad mango that’s sour or mushy, so I give mangoes four and a half stars.