Your one-stop destination for mango facts, mango drama, mango tier lists, and the relentless worship of Earth's greatest fruit.
Mangos belong to the family Anacardiaceae โ the same family as poison ivy and poison sumac. Mango skin contains urushiol, the very same chemical that makes poison ivy so itchy. The mango fruit said "hold my beer."
Toss a mango in water โ it floats. Scientists call this "being less dense than water." We call it a fun party trick that nobody asked for but everybody needed.
A mango tree can live and produce fruit for over 300 years. That means a mango tree planted today will still be flexing on future generations in the year 2325.
Mango leaves are toxic to livestock. The mango has beef with beef. If you were hoping to feed your cow a mango leaf salad, consider this your PSA.
India, Pakistan, AND the Philippines have all claimed the mango as their national fruit. Nobody agreed to share the title. Diplomatic chaos. The mango remains unbothered.
The word "mango" comes from the Tamil word mฤแน kฤy (เฎฎเฎพเฎเฏเฎเฎพเฎฏเฏ). Portuguese traders picked it up in the 1500s as manga, and the rest is history. Tamil speakers were ahead of the curve, as usual.
That big flat pit inside a mango is called a "stone." And inside that stone is a single seed. It's a fruit within a stone within a fruit situation. Mango said: nested data structures.
Mangos have been cultivated in South Asia for over 5,000 years. That's right โ humans were eating mangos before the Egyptian pyramids were built. We didn't deserve mangos then and we barely deserve them now.
There are over 500 documented mango varieties. The average Western grocery store stocks one: Tommy Atkins โ widely considered the worst one. You have been robbed. Seek justice.
These rankings are objective, scientific, and not up for debate. Any disagreement will be handled in the comments section of a fruit forum.
* Tommy Atkins apologists may send complaints to /dev/null. The Alphonso mango did not come here to lose.
"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. But first, share a mango."โ Kahlil Gibran (probably)
"I have a dream that one day every grocery store in America will stock Alphonso mangos and not just Tommy Atkins."โ Martin Luther King Jr. (not actually, but spiritually)
"The mango is the king of fruits. The banana is merely a minister."โ Ancient Proverb (made up just now)
"Give a man a mango, feed him for a day. Plant a mango tree, feed his great-great-grandchildren for 300 years."โ Someone's grandmother, probably
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the fields โ but we shall never surrender our mangos."โ Winston Churchill (the mango remix)
"To be or not to be is the wrong question. The right question is: fresh mango or dried mango?"โ Shakespeare (alternative cut)
The Wikipedia article on mangos is genuinely one of the best pages on the internet. It covers taxonomy, cultivation, history, nutritional value, and the fact that there are over 500 varieties. It's a lot.
Read the Mango Wikipedia Article