I get tons of questions asking how to pick the perfect avocado. I have become a master over the years and have to pass this simple little trick to all of my readers so you can learn how to pick a ripe avocado each and every time! Happy avo picking! How-to-pick-a-ripe-avocado-1

If you love avocados (seriously, who doesn’t?) it can be such a bummer to slice one open only to find brown and black inside. I’ve bought hundreds of them over the years, and I must confess, every once in a while I used to get a spotty one.

The avocados you’ll see in grocery stores usually range in color, from bright green to dark black. Most people choose their avocados based on their color — bright green being unripe, black with a green sheen being ripe, and dark black being overripe. However, this method is pretty unreliable. For the past couple of years I’ve tested the ripeness of avocados by gently squeezing them: very firm is under ripe, gently firm is almost ripe, slightly soft is ripe, and very soft is overripe. Again, this method works for me most of the time, but I still sometimes pick bad avocados based on touch alone.

Based on the suggestion of a friend, I started choosing my avocados based on one particular method, and I have yet to choose an overripe or under ripe one so far.

Essentially, you pull out the knob of your avocado and check the color of the avocado’s fruit. Using that method in combination with checking the firmness gets you a ripe avocado 100% of the time.

How-to-pick-a-ripe-avocado-2 An unripe avocado is usually bright green. The texture will be very firm, with no give at all when pressed. But it’s most important to check is the knob. Unripe avocados will have a knob that’s difficult to pull out. If you do manage to pull it out — though you should generally just move on to a different avocado — the flesh will be bright green.  How-to-pick-a-ripe-avocado-3 ripe avocado is dark green/black. Some ripe avocados will still have a bit of green on them, where others will be totally black. A ripe avocado has a bit of give. Most importantly, the knob comes out easily and the color of the avocado flesh is solid green How-to-pick-a-ripe-avocado-4Overripe avocados are completely black. They are often very soft and squish to the touch, but sometimes seem to have a nice give: they can be hard to differentiate from avocados that are actually ripe based on touch alone. An overripe avocado knob comes out easily, but the internal flesh will be mottled gray-green, brown, or black. How-to-pick-a-ripe-avocado-5 Use this tip to find perfect, ready-to-eat avocados every time!  Source: Integral Natural Yoga Foods

8 Comments on How To Pick A Ripe Avocado

  1. Jane
    May 27, 2014 at 1:35 pm (10 years ago)

    I actually heard that squeezing the avocado can bruise it and to push the top at the knob instead. Same with squeezing, if it gives it’s ripe, if it goes in way too easily it’s overripe.

    Reply
    • Catherine
      May 27, 2014 at 3:47 pm (10 years ago)

      Ohhh that’s a good trick, Jane!!! I’m totally trying that with my avos at home this week!

      Reply
  2. Jojo @ RunFastEatLots
    May 27, 2014 at 2:50 pm (10 years ago)

    I always use the squeezing method. Never tried removing that little knob. Thanks for sharing the tip!

    Reply
  3. Niquole Abram
    May 28, 2014 at 1:55 am (10 years ago)

    Love this tip! I usually buy the bright green ones anyways even though they are not ripe yet. What I end up doing is when avocados on sale here, I’ll buy several of them to last me for a couple of weeks. Actually found that if I put them in the refrigerator they seem to stay in whatever state they were in which was odd. I cut into one that was unripe and I put it into the fridge and seriously, a week later it was still unripe which was interesting. Works out really good if you want to buy several of them in advance and not have them spoil on you immediately.

    Reply
    • Catherine
      May 28, 2014 at 10:49 am (10 years ago)

      I refrigerate mine as well! It slows them from ripening!

      Reply
  4. Liz Harper
    May 28, 2014 at 3:16 am (10 years ago)

    This is fantastic, no more opening my avocado and holding my breathe until I find out if it is going to be a good or bad avo day! xx

    Reply
  5. Benazir
    May 29, 2014 at 1:45 am (10 years ago)

    This was just really useful! I can never tell with Avocados! (: Thank you!

    Reply
  6. Derek Hanson
    June 9, 2014 at 10:07 pm (10 years ago)

    I find that avocados ripen/rot from the stem point first, so it is important to assure that that region is not overripe. Your method addresses this point effectively!

    Reply

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