Sapote, Sapodilla, sapotilla, sapodilla plum, sopota, zapote, chicle, chico sapote, chiku/ciku, mammee sapota, marmalade plum, naseberry, tree potato
chico-mamei (Malay/Philippines), zapote de carne (Colombia), mamey (Cuba), chachaas (Mexico), zapotier jaune d’oeuf/sapote àcrème/marmalade fruit/zapote grande/mamey (Central America), sapotille/nèfle d’Amérique (French), westindische Mispel (Dutch), sapodilla/chico (Spanish), sapota (Portuguese/Tamil), sapota/sapotiglia (Italian), sapotille (Greek), sapatu (Hindi), lamut farang (Thai), ciku (Malay), sawo (Indonesian), ren xin guo (Chinese), sapojira (Japanese), naseberry (West Indies)
Sapote fruits are about the most confusing of all the fruits. The name is derived from the Aztec “tzapotl”, which means soft, and gives rise to a seemingly inexhaustible realm of terms for sapote fruits, as well as for those not even remotely related.
A fruit sometimes called “mamey sapote” is a sapote fruit and not related to another fruit also called “mamey“.
The white sapote (Casimiroa edulis)
is also not related (see below), and neither is ‘chupa chupa‘, which grows in Peru and Colombia.
White sapote/sapota, Mexican apple (used in South Africa), custard apple, and zapota blanco are all names applied to Casimiroa edulis, which is not a member of the Sapotaceae family, but a relative of the citrus fruits in the family Rutaceae.
It is a sub-tropical fruit which grows wild in Central Mexico and is cultivated in some Latin countries. The small pale yellow fruit has the flavour of a ripe pear.
It was given its generic name in honour of a 18th century Spanish cardinal who was also a botanist.
The plant grows easily and bears masses of fruit; but, in many places, it has been unsuccessful when cultivated experimentally. There is some commercial growing in New Zealand and South Africa. However, Israel, the Philippines, California, and Florida, to name a few, and for one reason or another, have not found it worth cultivating.
Even where it is grown and consumed, its reputation has been shadowed by such names as “matasano”, which means ‘kill health’, suggesting that it should be eaten with caution.
Chemists from the 16th century may have confirmed this when, in it they found some soporific substances which have some narcotic tranquillizing effects.
Black sapote (Diospyros ebenaster – Family Ebenaceae)
is another name that is sometimes used for the black persimmon.
It is no relation to the white sapote, but is a close relative of the persimmon, and bears a slight resemblance to it in shape. It is cultivated mainly in Mexico and the West Indies. The skin is olive-green and the flesh a chocolate-brown, and just as sweet as the persimmon.
Varieties that are related to the sapodilla are the sapote (Calocarpum mamosum),
which has a large central seed similar to the avocado, the green sapote (Calocarpum viride),
and the star apple.
However, the species, sapota, (Sapodilla) has the best claim to the name.
Sapodilla
is the fruit of an evergreen tree which also produces the gum chicle,
from which chewing gum is made. It is found in the wild from Southern Mexico to Nicaragua and now is cultivated in other areas, including parts of Southeast Asia.
Lintels made from the tree have been found in Mayan ruins dating from about 470 CE. The tree was cultivated in the region long before the arrival of the Spaniards, who took a liking to the fruit and introduced it to the Philippines. From there, it spread through Southeast Asia and to India.
The sapodilla is a large oval-shaped fruit that has a brown fuzz covering its rough, yellow skin. It is between two and four inches in diameter and can reach a length of eight inches.
The flesh is yellow-brown, sometimes pinkish, with a soft translucent juicy pulp containing flat black seeds. The interior resembles that of a pear, except that the seeds are larger.
Some botanists have described it as having the scent of honey, jasmine, lily of the valley, and that of brown sugar.
The sapodilla is usually eaten raw from its half-shell, but only if completely ripe as the unripened fruit contains latex and tannins. In the West Indies, it is often boiled down to make a syrup.
Some prefer to eat it in the overripe stage, like a medlar. This is reflected in the name “naseberry” from the Spanish “nispola” (medlar) and the French “nèfle d’Amérique”.
