What flavors do you like?

[AmericanFigLover]

I know some people like the figs with the honey taste, sugar, and while other go for the berry flavored ones. I myself don't like honey so I want to stay away from light colored figs. I just associate those with the honey flavored and darks with the berry. However I could be wrong.

I would like to find one that has a cinnamon taste to it.

Would flavor do you like in your figs?

[rayrose]

I'm with you, I like that true figgy flavor. Some of the honey figs are just pure sugar and nothing else. That's why I got rid of Italian Golden Honey. I've never heard of a cinnamon tasting fig.

[mountainfigs]

Basically agree. I prefer any number of flavors - figgy or not figgy, berry, molasses, or citric - over the sugar or honey figs that can taste like little other than pure sugar.

[AmericanFigLover]

I didn't mean a cinnamon only taste. I don't know where I read it, but I heard that there was a few figs that tasted as if it had a bit in it. Then again it could have just been the taster's own palate.

[mountainfigs]

Emerald Strawberry (143-36) may be the variety you are thinking of. Has a kind of spiciness to it that can be reminiscent of cinnamon. Very easy grower, nice fingerlike leaves. Can produce more foliage than fruit. One of the best flavors I've tasted.

[brettjm]

143-36 indeed. I think its this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI5WCFhScko finds it spicy. Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste that link. Phenomenal rooter, by the way.

[mountainfigs]

Honey, Sugar, Adriatic, Bordeaux, Dark - of the 5 most commonly agreed upon flavor categories, I typically prefer the berry flavors of the latter 3, though the former 2 have their stars.

I would add a couple flavor categories to these five: a "miscellaneous berry" category for all the cultivars with berryish flavors not so similar to Adriatic or as intense as it, for example Binello, a kind of lite berry flavor, or Malta Black and Hunt, 2 different kinds of crosses between berry and sugar flavors. I would also add a "citric tropic" flavor category for cultivars like Lemon/Blanche and LSU Purple, as they've tasted to me. Others have described such fig taste, notably LSU Purple, as "sub-acidic."

I like to think of fig flavor categories along the following lines:

Sugar Gel - Improved Celeste
Honey Cream - Janice Kadota
Intense Berry Jam [Adriatic] - Emerald Strawberry, Paradiso GM-9, Verte, Green Ischia
Molasses Berry Jam [Bordeaux] - Vista, Negronne, Petite Negri, Violette de Bordeaux, Nero 600m / Valle Negra
Punch Berry Jam [Dark] - Marseilles Black (Mt Etnas)
Misc Berry Gel - Malta Black, Hunt, Binello
Citric Tropic Gel - LSU Purple, Lemon/Blanche

Improved Celeste, Janice Kadota, Emerald Strawberry, Vista, Marseilles Black, Malta Black, LSU Purple: 7 great and distinct flavors and groups there, to my taste. Emerald Strawberry and Marseilles Black stand out as berry, intense and punchy respectively. Janice Kadota stands out as more cream than honey. Vista as a Bordeaux stands out as "figgy," I suppose, or molasses-like. Improved Celeste, a sugar bomb though with some good flavor. The miscellaneous lite berries and berry flavored sugars form their own niche, as do the seemingly citric tropic flavors. That said, it seems to me that any cultivars prone to some acidity like the Mt Etnas and LSU Purple may lose any acidity when fully mature or dead ripe.

I agree with others who say that melon flavored figs seem to be figs not well ripe.

The intense strawberry jams ("Adriatic" types) and the punchy grape-strawberry jams ("Dark" or Mt Etna types) are my personal favorites, for the most part, though last year's honey-like brandy cream taste of Janice Kadota was as flavorful as anything else.

[F. Bennett]

With the majority of my figs tasting like berries, I do enjoy a honey fig just as much (Atreano) since it's the only honey-flavor I have.