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Comment by archsurface | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand this avocado obsession of recent years. What's the sudden interest? "Avocado on toast" - what's that about? Some sort of dig? Or people genuinely think this is exciting? I grew up with a couple of avocado trees in my garden from '80-ish, but it's not like it was a rare earth mine. This makes as much sense to me as people getting excited about oranges; genuinely confused.

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Mexican avocados were banned from import to the United States for over 80 years until 1997. Before that, the supply of avocados from California was seasonal and limited which discouraged restaurants from putting them on their menu and generally kept them more a novelty. Ironically, having a strong consistent supply increased demand. Also, Mexican avocados are generally far superior to those from California.

I remember avocados from the 90s as being rock hard and mostly flavorless. Perhaps they were better locally, but I never had a tasty, buttery soft avocado until the 2000s.

I couldn't disagree more! I won't buy an avocado with a label from Mexico or Chile because they are so watery / flavorless. I also happen to live in Carpinteria, CA, where our local avo's are second to none.

Perhaps they don't export the good ones, I've enjoyed very much going to the markets in Mexico and asking for avocados for eating today and also slightly less ready ones that will be perfect tomorrow. The fruit sellers know exactly what to give you, they are perfect every time. A splash of lime juice and chili powder.. True culinary happiness.

Like many fruits and vegetables, I’m guessing quality has to do with how early it has to be picked before the ideal picking time in order to transit to the destination.

Almost all fruits and vegetables in the US taste better on the US West coast, in my opinion, and I suspect it’s because you’re closer to the origin (Cali/Mexico/WA/OR/the rest of Central and South America) so the fruit/vegetables take less time in transit and therefore don’t have to be picked so early.

Avocados don’t ripen on the tree (although they will drop eventually). So there isn’t so much early harvesting as long as the size is about right.

Avocado also varies based on weather and age of the tree.

Local fresh avocados in Mexico are excellent. Same goes for tomatoes, strawberries, mangos, etc.

You can’t reasonably compare unripe produce transported from 1500 miles away with fresh ripe local produce.

Avocados exported from California to the East Coast can also end up mediocre.

That's because they're harvested early for transport. Left on the tree two weeks longer, the fat content goes up and they're far tastier.

Oh man yeah avocados from that particular area so good. I grew up in Ojai and ones grown in the area were miles ahead of anything the stores sell.

I also cringe when I see people pressing their thumbs into them at the store.

Water avocado vs fatty avocado are different kinds

I had no idea! Here’s a 1997 article on the ban being lifted:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-02-01-fi-24310-...

Is this something that would have indirectly affected Canada? I don't remember avocados being a thing here in the 90s.

> having a strong consistent supply increased demand

This is a very pronounced effect across all sectors of the economy. It's really not that surprising. It's similar to the old traffic engineering adage that expanding highways expands traffic in equal measure - such that it is often futile to add extra lanes to existing congested roads.

When something becomes cheaper/easier to use, demand often rises to the point that the new equilibrium is similar to the old one, as new opportunities open up to use X product that were previously unexplored due to constrained supply

> Mexican avocados are generally far superior to those from California

Maybe that's true for the ones shipped eastward.

Here in the SF bay area, I find California Hass avocados are superior to those available from Mexico and Peru. They're easy to peel and the flavor is fantastic.

If you want to reduce you intake of animal produce but still have fatty meals your choices are limited. Avocado, olives, nuts and some oils are exploding in popularity due to this I believe.

For last 20 years in the US, we have been recovering from decades of misinformation about the “dangers” of fat. The avocado is one item that benefits from a return to nutritional sanity.

That shift has laid the foundation for items like avocado toast or Chipotle’s guacamole to help popularize avocados.

There are lots of other factors, I’m sure. But it helps that they’re tasty.

Avocados weren’t really marketed at all until the mid-90s and were also shunned by some due to high fat. It was a niche food almost completely considered a side for mexican cuisine. It has been expensive outside of growing areas for a while, hence the jokes about asking for guac at Chipotle and always being warned it costs another $1.39. I’d guess part of the expense is that it has a relatively small window between being unripe and too ripe.

My understanding is also that it can take 20 years from pit to fruit-bearing-tree, so supply will tend to lag behind demand (which has grown globally.)

Ok, thanks. I was in sub-Saharan Africa, so zero exposure to the Mexican aspects, and I don't recall anyone ever giving a damn about fat content in anything. We also had banana, pawpaw, and guava trees - avos were just one of the standard fruits.

The previous responses cover what are probably the most important factors, but I think it’s worth adding that avocados are also touted as ‘super foods’ in multiple trendy diets (eg keto).

Yeah, in the US avocado is seen more as an ingredient in savory food items, not as a fruit.

No one answered you about avocado toast, but it's literally what it sounds like. Slice some avocado, put it on toast, typically with a poached egg and some seasonings of choice. It's seen as a quick healthy meat free breakfast or lunch that still has a sort of richness to it. It became a fad with younger people after restaurants realized it could be a real money maker.

Only un-grafted avocados take a long time (and typically it's more like 10 years to fruit, not 20). Grafted cultivars vary in precocity, with some (e.g. Lamb) fruiting in the year after grafting and others (e.g. Sir Prize) taking many years to start fruiting.

Awesome, thanks for the info/correction. I remember many attempts in my childhood for family members to raise a tree from a pit and they never got very far.

They're very filling, high in fat, low in sugar, and they taste good. You're basically eating a relatively healthy block of fat, to me it's sort of like asking "why do people like bacon?" - for the obvious reasons, salt and fat.

By contrast, oranges aren't something I'd indulge in. They have much more sugar - ~10x what an avocado has. They're acidic. They're not particularly filling (low fat / protein content).

Lots of marketing on the back of the recent embrace of good and healthy fats. They irony of the whole avocado and toast fad is the inclusion of the toast which more often than not is unhealthy...trigger the anti-anti-carb comments.

I too was also lucky enough to grow up with a hand full of avocado trees that fruited every year, and I say that even though I never really cared for them personally, but to this day I do incorporate avocado oil into my salads and wish I had acquired the taste for eating the avocado itself.

I think the marketing has died down but for a while I Felt it was almost on par with the kind of submarine marketing both pizza and tacos get as a favorite food of the masses.

Processed food is full of oil, and consumers are seeking healthy options while producers voraciously production growth, moving from oil to oil, seeking profits and sales on the trends of diets.

I stopped eating chips with canola oil and only get the ones with only avocado oil, because the canola is rancid for my belly

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