The other day I was grocery shopping and was looking at the avocados. There was another shopper looking at them also. They were on sale, so the selection wasn’t great. The other shopper proceeded to squeeze each avocado she picked up, to test if they were ripe…ugh!

I believe an avocado is like a banana or a peach, if you squeeze it you are bruising the flesh and it will lead to dark mushy areas. I personally don’t enjoy dark mushy areas on my fruit that I pay good money for! So, I took the opportunity to tell her the way I select avocados (which has rarely failed me). I learned this trick from the cooking channel years ago. 

If you are buying avocados that have already turned the usual brownish green color, the only way I know to insure they aren’t too over ripe is to flick off the remainder of the stem. 

If the exposed flesh is green you have an avocado that is ripe, slightly soft and creamy. Perfect! If the exposed flesh is brown, leave it! It’s over ripe and wil have dark areas inside. 

Unfortunately the other shopper didn’t heed my advice, and proceeded to squeeze every avocado she picked up, leaving bruised fruit in her wake….

A couple more tidbits I’ve learned about avocados:

• Don’t buy all of them the same color if you aren’t planning on eating all them right away. I usually buy a couple that are suitable for eating right way and a couple that are more green to have later in the week. 
• Green avocados will ripen on the counter nicely
• To stop or slow the ripening put them in the refrigerator 
• Store an unused half with the seed still in it, in the refrigerator 
• Wrap the unused half in plastic wrap with the wrap touching as much of the exposed flesh as possible. This will cut down the amount of browning. If it’s too brown when you are ready to eat it, scrape off the brown layer and it will be nice and green underneath!

I love avocados (if you couldn’t tell 😉 I hope I have been able to make choosing the perfect avocado easier for you! Enjoy!