Written by Hilary Rock BSc, Nutrition
Reviewed by Andrea Miller MHSc, RD
The other day I was strolling around my local farmer’s market when I came across yellow watermelon. This is the first time that I had ever seen this fruit. Being the curious and food driven person I am I just had to try it. I assumed it would be pretty similar to the more common pink watermelon but the one I tasted wasn’t as sweet and almost had a slight sour taste. To me it tasted more like melons such as honeydew than the traditional pink watermelon. However, it did still have tender crispness and watery texture as pink watermelon. Very intrigued about my new discovery I wanted to do a little more research about yellow watermelon.
According to Alberts Organics, watermelons that are pink or red on the inside contain a powerful antioxidant called lycopene, which is perhaps best known for making tomatoes red. Yellow watermelons do not contain this antioxidant, so they don’t have the same reddish tint. Yellow watermelons are known for their extremely sweet taste, which some people say tastes a bit like honey and this is indeed the one difference between a yellow flesh watermelon and a pink flesh melon – the yellow ones tend to be sweeter. However, this wasn’t the case when I tried my yellow watermelon. Possibly the yellow watermelon that I had was overripe giving it a more bitter taste since I didn’t think it had much taste to it at all when I tried it. Yellow watermelon would certainly be a great conversation piece at any get together. I know I will defiantly be trying yellow watermelon again to try the sweet, honey taste but this time I will be more careful at selecting a ripe watermelon. Hopefully you will have a sweeter first experience with yellow watermelon than I had.
Resource: albertsorganics.com