If you are still hoping to find your prince by kissing a little tree frog, then this is the fruit for you!
Atemoyas, a cross between the cherimoya and the soursop, look like tumorous little forest creatures but taste like tropical flowers. Eating one is a pure delight, but so is reading about it. Take this page for example, a scientific description for all intents and purposes, but it takes the atemoya to a whole new level (for me at least, but I’m a bit nerdy that way). I don’t know about you but these kind of details just make me blush (are they seriously talking about the picture below?): delicate apex, creamy lines around the areoles, elliptical, less hairy, prominent and angular, firm, pliable, fragrant…wowza! Fruit can be very inappropriate.
APPEARANCE Rating: 
Dusty green, wobbly, gnarled looking fruit with tan flesh and gorgeous black seeds.
AROMA Rating:
Sweet, tropical and floral. Luscious, luscious, luscious.
TEXTURE Rating:
Very slightly fibrous, slightly grainy (like a pear), yet creamy and juicy at the same time.
TASTE Rating:
Mix of sweet pineapple, pear, banana and strawberry.
OVERALL Overall Rating:
Extremely delicious fruit. Just about as yummy as you can get. Atemoyas are sweet and bright and delicate. I’m not sure I can tell the difference between this and the cherimoya particularly, although I’m not tasting them side by side.
| FRUIT Atemoya |
PEAK Unclear (Fall – but they are at the Farmer’s Market now!) |
PURCHASED Farmer’s Market |
| VARIETY Unknown |
GROWN Rainbow, CA |
Wow! Haven’t seen one of these in a while! Cherimoyas are in season, too, so it would be kind of neat to do a comparison taste test.
http://nutsaboutfruit.blogspot.com/2010/01/cherimoya-fruit-deliciousness-itself.html
I thought these were cherimoyas. They sell them at the market next to me, and call them cherimoyas, chirimoya, qurimoya, depending on which one of them made the sign.
I really like them too!
I am pretty sure it is a Cherimoya, not Atemoya.
Well, all I personally can go by is what the farmer at the market tells me, which is that this was an atemoya. You can see lots of google images of them here and they look pretty similar. Anyone know something definitive for determining which is which by simply looking at it? Can you read my cherimoya review here.
I grow anonas(cherimoya, sour sop, atemoya, sugar apple, custard apple, and more) in Costa Rica. Atemoya is a cross between cherimoya and sugar apple (not sour sop.) There is a lot of variability in the shape/appearance of fruit that different atemoya trees produce (like the same 2 parents have different looking kids.) However, I have never seen an atemoya look so much like a cherimoya as the specimen in the photo looks. I would bet it´s a cherimoya. In any case, atemoya and cherimoya are arguably the best of the anonas (but don´t pass up trying some of the others as some specimens can hold their own in their own unique way.)
Great post.