If Mangosteen Tastes Like Sherbet, Why Don't We Eat It?

Mangosteen, the "queen of fruits," tastes like a spoonful of sweet-tart sherbet, and plant explorers have called it one of the best fruits on Earth for over a century. So why have most Americans never eaten one? For decades, fresh mangosteens were effectively banned in the United States and smuggled into Chinatown markets through Canada. But the ban is only part of the story. In this video we dig into the Queen Victoria myth, the USDA fruit fly rules, a tree that dies below 40°F and takes ten years or more to fruit, Florida's century of failed attempts, the Honduras orchard that almost made it, and the billion-dollar mangosteen juice craze that sold Americans the one part of the fruit nobody eats. Chapters 0:00 The smuggled fruit in Chinatown 0:58 Is the mangosteen overhyped? 1:54 Does it spoil? The Queen Victoria myth 2:45 The fruit fly ban 3:41 The real problem: the tree 5:32 A decade-long wait and seeds that can't be bred 7:15 XanGo and the mangosteen juice craze References David Karp, mangosteen review, Journal of the American Pomological Society 64(1), 2010: https://journal.americanpomological.org/in... Julia F. Morton, Fruits of Warm Climates, "Mangosteen" (Purdue University NewCROP): https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/man... USDA APHIS final rule allowing irradiated fruit from Thailand, Federal Register, June 21, 2007: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-200... NPR on mangosteens arriving in New York (2007): https://www.npr.org/2007/08/16/12847189/ma... Deseret News on XanGo's mangosteen juice business (2008): https://www.deseret.com/2008/2/17/20070967...