It's always fun to watch people inspecting, thumping, knocking, tapping, drumming watermelons, trying to reveal the best possible melon.
As entertaining as all that hitting may be, you can't really tell a good melon from a bad melon that way.
There is good news however, there are a few methods that actually help determine the ripeness of watermelons.
Allow us to introduce the three-step process to discover a great tasting watermelon.
1. TAKE A GOOD LOOK – Your watermelon should be firm and remember, ripe watermelons should be dark green in color.
2. PICK THE WATERMELON UP – The ripest watermelons have a lot of water. After all, watermelons are 92 percent water, so your watermelon should be relatively heavy for its size.
3. TURN THE MELON OVER – Turn your watermelon over and look at the bottom.
It should have a creamy yellow ground spot. (photo above)
This is where the watermelon sat on the ground while it soaked up the sun out in the fields.
If the ground spot is white or greenish, your watermelon may have been picked too soon and might not be as ripe as you would like.
As far as beating watermelons in the produce aisle, well, there is some truth that the “sound test” can give you clues on a watermelon’s ripeness, but there seems to be a lot of confusion with what sound is the right sound.
Some say a ripe watermelon will produce a hollow sound, while a “thick” or “solid” sound indicates a watermelon that’s not ripe or too ripe. Others say a hollow or “tight” sound is bad, and your watermelon should instead sound “firm.”
You can tap all you want, because in some ways, thumping is good. If it sounds hollow and not high pitched, it is a good indication of ripeness.
So the jury is still out when it comes to the thumping definitive.
Back in the old days small “plugs” would be pulled out of melons to check for ripeness, but who does that anymore?
Oh yes, there is also an app that uses the iPhone’s microphone to detect whether or not a watermelon is ripe when you knock against it.
That's right, there is a watermelon ripeness detection app, and it is available now in the app store. It costs $2.
After you’ve downloaded Melon Meter the app first takes you into a Melon Meter tutorial before it allows you to use the meter, because God forbid if someone were to use this thing incorrectly.
Really, if you perform the three-part test we discussed earlier, you should have no problem finding a great watermelon, yes, even without the app.
