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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

The avocados I buy look like this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Av...

See how the outside is super bumpy, and there's a thick rigid brown layer before you get to the green flesh? Rock-hard skin even if the flesh is soft. A serrated knife helps to cut through it without smushing the flesh.

While I see other photos that look like this:

https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/avocado_1...

Where the skin is visibly much thinner and smoother and there's no brown layer, and I can only imagine that's the type of avocado where people can judge its ripeness. But those don't seem to be available in NYC at my local store or Whole Foods or anywhere...

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> Where the skin is visibly much thinner and smoother and there's no brown layer, and I can only imagine that's the type of avocado where people can judge its ripeness. But those don't seem to be available in NYC at my local store or Whole Foods or anywhere...

I get both of those here in SoCal, or at least a varieties that look similar to those photos - the bumpier variety is noticeable when I come across it (it's definitely tougher). I never paid attention to the thickness of the skin or kept track of how quality correlates to the bumpiness, though. I'll keep an eye out from now on.

I wonder if there's a single vendor/broker supplying the stores in your area. Have you tried buying them from outside the boroughs?

There's an avocado delivery service in NYC that claims to deliver perfect avocados every time. There's some good press coverage around it: https://davocadoguy.net/

I use a similar service in New Zealand, and no longer have avocados ruined by overzealous squeezers in the supermarket.

I don't know who these people are, but they exist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38m-wnbHPLA

If its still hard there set it on the counter a day or two and check again. The test works for me with these sorts of avocados so I’m thinking user error.

Right but what I'm saying is it's always hard. Because the skin is so thick and hard there's literally no way to tell what the flesh is like underneath.

Except sometimes it's a little thinner/softer that you can actually press the outside, but you still have to use so much pressure it bruises the avocado. There's zero way of "gently" checking.

I've opened avocados that are still rock-hard on the outside, after waiting a full week, only to discover they're overripe and brown/gray on the inside.

And I have no problem with any other fruit or vegetable. Just avocados because of their crazy thick/hard rind where I live.

I just don't see how it can be "user error". My only suspicion is it's a different subvariety or grown for extra-thick skin for longer-distance transport or something.

you, sir, have a broken avocado

A durometer, acoustic impulse-response and special UV-VIS spectrophotometer are all instruments used to detect avocado ripeness and usually work well.

A durometer is the cheapest at about $40. If you're right that it's impossible to tell by hardness then it wouldn't work. But you might find that it's more sensitive than your fingers and so it can work?

I would be interested to know the result of a durometer test on your fruits because about 85% of consumers report firmness as a useful measure - a lot but certainly not everyone. So yes maybe there is some granularity to discover there: specific situations where firmness just doesn't work well?

I buy the same Hass avocados you posted, and I've lived in every region in the U.S. For the past 10 years, I have eaten an avocado (minimum 1/2 avocado) every single day. That is several thousand avocados.

I can say with absolute conviction that it isn't the rind giving you trouble. I can pick every ripe Hass avocado out of a bin of 50, and never once be wrong. That said, there are a couple of stores in my current area that have garbage Hass avocados. The ones I buy from this store are consistently gross and fibrous, even when ripe, and have a very short window. I boycott these stores. They either have a second rate supplier, or else somehow ruin the product in transport.

By the way, you need a gentle touch and the ability very slowly, smoothly increase pressure. You pick up the avocados that are not yet ripe, the moment one is on the threshold, such that there is a nearly imperceptible give which does not bounce back, you buy the avocado. It should not bruise the fruit, and you won't be able to detect it when peeled. After this check, you can visually tell when it has fully ripened, ~1-2 days later. For what it's worth, I've never successfully ripened one AFTER cutting into it, and I've never kept an uncut avocado for more than 4 days.

Thank you!

I think this is the most helpful comment -- first of all, I'm now just convinced that the stores I usually go to must be getting garbage avocados for whatever reason, I genuinely never guessed that would be a per-store thing. I'll try some different places, there must be different suppliers.

And I think:

> nearly imperceptible give which does not bounce back

Could be the key. I've always been looking for some pretty obvious give -- saying it's borderline impercetible seems like it might be the key. Other commenters here seem to be saying something similar.

Also good to hear the majority of people advising to feel the side or bottom (not the stem end as the article suggests).

I think there's hope for me yet! So thanks to you and everyone else who's been helping.

I’ve successfully judged the ripeness of those avocados by squeezing all my life

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