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!

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.

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.  A 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.  Overripe 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. Use this tip to find perfect, ready-to-eat avocados every time!  Source: Integral Natural Yoga Foods