How do you know when an avocado is ready?

An avocado is either rock hard or a day past it, and there never seems to be a moment in between. There is — it just lasts about forty-eight hours, and most people miss it because they are checking the wrong thing.

Every avocado we sell is <b>Hass</b>, grown in the Kenyan highlands. That matters here, because Hass is one of the few varieties whose skin actually tells you something.

The squeeze test — and where people go wrong

Hold the whole avocado in your palm and close your hand gently. Do not press with your fingertips. Fingertips concentrate the force into two small points and bruise the flesh underneath, which is why supermarket avocados are often brown in patches before you even get them home.

Rock hard, no give at all — three to five days away.
Firm, the barest movement — two days. Buy at this stage if you are shopping ahead.
Yields evenly to gentle pressure — ready. Eat it today or tomorrow.
Soft, your hand leaves a dent — gone too far. Still fine mashed into guacamole, not good sliced.

The stem trick, which is more reliable

At the top of the avocado there is a small dry stem cap. Flick it off with your thumbnail and look at the colour underneath.

Bright green — ripe and good. Eat it.
Yellowish-green — almost there, give it a day.
Brown — overripe inside, and you have saved yourself the disappointment of cutting it open.
The stem will not come off — underripe. Leave it alone.

This works better than squeezing because it looks at the flesh directly rather than guessing at it through the skin. It is also the only test that costs nothing if you are wrong.

What the skin colour tells you

Hass is unusual in that it changes colour as it ripens — from green through to a dark, almost black, pebbled skin. Most other varieties stay green whatever happens inside, which is why colour is useless advice in general and useful advice here.

Use it as a first filter, not a verdict. A dark avocado that is still hard needs a few more days; a dark one that gives gently is ready now.

How to ripen one faster

Put it in a paper bag with a banana or an apple, and leave it on the counter. Both give off ethylene, the gas that drives ripening, and the bag holds it around the fruit. That usually takes a three-day avocado down to one or two.

Do not use a plastic bag — it traps moisture as well as gas, and you get a soft, damp avocado rather than a ripe one. And never put an unripe avocado in the fridge: cold stops the ripening process, and an avocado that has been chilled while hard often never ripens properly at all.

How to slow one down

Once it has reached the stage you want, move it to the fridge. That buys you another two or three days at roughly the state it was in when it went in.

This is the part worth knowing if you order two: eat one, refrigerate the other.

You cut it open too early. Now what?

Press the two halves back together, put the stone back in, wrap it tightly and leave it on the counter for a day. It will carry on ripening, though not as evenly as it would have whole.

For a half you want to keep rather than ripen: leave the stone in the half you are saving, rub the cut face with lemon or lime, wrap it airtight and refrigerate. It holds about a day. The browning is oxidation, not spoilage — scrape it off and what is underneath is fine.

Frequently asked questions

Shop these fruits

Browse every variety we carry on the avocados page.

Avocado

₹279

Avocado — Ready to Eat

₹299