Product Review: Cantaloupe

I love cantaloupe. It is one of my favorite foods (and I do mean foods, not just fruits). I remember being a child and sharing a half with my dad. He would scoop out pieces and we would alternate. (Being so kind, my dad would give me the best pieces from the inner edge whereas he would eat more from the edge closer to the rind). It’s a simple memory but a good one. 

I liked it in fruit salad with other melons (and had fun making nice little melon balls with the cute utensil) but alone was just as good for that pure flavor. 

I enjoyed cantaloupe all through college. I actually remember being at an orientation for new tour guides and office hosts. As an “ice breaker” we were asked to say what we liked best at the dining center. People laughed when I said “the cantaloupe”, I guess because it suggested that I was not too keen on the quality of the food the dining center prepared. (Actually, I thought a lot of the food was quite good and I also mentioned one of their baked goods as my other favorite items).

My love for cantaloupe made me feel disappointed that Costco’s cantaloupe was not particularly good. As I will (eventually) get to, until this year, the cantaloupes were small, not particularly flavorful, and fairly expensive for Costco. After a few tries, we stopped buying them and bought the fruit elsewhere. (Except for last year when, for some reason, it seemed that there were no cantaloupes around in MA, or at least not for a reasonable price. I don’t think I had one the entire summer). 

Last week, we tried them again, as they looked bigger and were a good price ($6 for two large melons) and I am so glad we did! These cantaloupes are so good. Solid 8 or 8.5 on my rating scale. They are large and dense, firm (I am not a fan of mushy fruit), flavorful, and lack the “nail polish” taste that some cantaloupes have. As I was raving about them to my father, he asked me if, assuming that every cantaloupe I got for the rest of the summer tasted like these, I’d be satisfied. I said absolutely. 9 and 10 are hard to find so a guarantee of cantaloupes this good is a definite for me. 

Cantaloupe is absolutely delicious on its own as a snack. However, I also enjoy it as a side dish with almost any other food, especially breakfast foods like muffins. It is also delicious with cottage cheese (Product review: Breakstone’s cottage cheese). I remember my grandma introducing me to this combination. I was very young and she came home from work and put a scoop of cottage cheese in the middle of the melon halves. 

I will have to see if the quality remains over the next month and beyond. Cantaloupes used to be more of a summer fruit but now it seems like fruits are available most of the year (although often more expensive.)

Have you tried the cantaloupes at Costco in the past and/or this year?  What do you think?