3 Tricks to Choose Ripe Avocados

3 Tricks to Choose Ripe Avocados

When you go to a supermarket to buy avocados, selecting a ripe avocado can be tough. How can you tell if an avocado is ripe? It's very disappointing to go home only to find that the avocado you've chosen is hard as rock when you desperately need it for your dish. Let me tell you from experience, it's even nastier to bring home a rotten avocado.

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan

It starts with you knowing how to test the ripeness of an avocado. I hate to say, but not all avocados sitting on the stand is worth it, so you got to dig in for the right ones.


How to Pick a Ripe Avocado?

1. It's color Tells a Thing

What the avocado looks on the outside can give you a hint of what's inside. If an avocado is a light green color, then it's not yet ripe. If it's color is dark green, dark brown, or dark purple, then it's ripe. Careful though, you don't want it over ripe so use additional tests.


2. Squeeze the Avocado

This trick is simple. Put the avocado on your palm then gently squeeze the avocado by applying a light pressure. You do not want to crush the avocado so be gentle. If it's hard, then it's unripe. If you press it and it feels as if it's going to collapse because it's too soggy, it's over ripe.

You'll know if an avocado is ripe when it yields to gentle pressure but it's still firm enough so it does not collapse.


3. Flick off the stem

When you look at the apex of an avocado, there's usually a small stem attached to it. A good way to check if an avocado is ripe is by flicking off it's stem. If you flick the stem and it reveals a green color underneath, it's  unripe. If it reveals a dark brown to greyish interior, then it's over ripe or already spoiled.

You can tell that an avocado is ripe when you can easily remove it's stem and it reveals a yellowish avocado flesh underneath.