2025 Paw Paw Season is ON!

If you’ve recently ordered fresh pawpaw fruit online and opened your box to find blotchy green-yellow fruits with brown spots, you might be worried:

👉 “Did I just pay for rotten fruit?”
👉 “Why does it smell so strong?”
👉 “Should I request a refund?”

These are valid concerns—especially since pawpaws are North America’s forgotten native fruit, and most people haven’t grown up eating them.

Let’s break down what’s normal, what’s not, and how to know if your pawpaws are still good to enjoy.

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🥭 What Pawpaws Are Supposed to Look Like

Unlike supermarket bananas or mangoes, pawpaws don’t have a long shelf life. Their skin often shows bruising, blotches, and scarring even when perfectly ripe. In fact:

• Green → underripe, starchy, and not sweet.

• Yellow-green with brown spots → ripe and ready to eat.

• Dark brown/black all over → likely overripe, but sometimes still edible if the inside is golden and fragrant.

So if your pawpaws arrived with patchy skin, don’t panic—that’s normal.

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👃 The Smell Test

Pawpaws have a tropical aroma—a mix of mango, banana, and custard. When ripe, the smell can be quite strong, almost perfumy.

What’s normal:

• Sweet, custardy fragrance

• Strong tropical scent, especially near the stem

What’s not normal:

• Sour, fermented, or alcoholic smell

• Mushy texture leaking through the skin

If your box has an overly sour odor, that’s a sign some fruits may have gone past their prime.

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🍽 How to Check the Inside

The ultimate test is cutting one open:

• Good pawpaw flesh: golden yellow, creamy, custard-like, with large dark seeds.

• Overripe pawpaw flesh: may look brown or mushy, with off flavors.

If most of the fruits are still yellow and fragrant, you can scoop and enjoy them. If several are completely brown or liquified inside, they may be spoiled.

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⚖️ Why Pawpaws Are Hard to Ship

One of the biggest challenges with pawpaws is that they:

• Ripen quickly, often within a few days of harvest.

• Bruise easily during transport.

• Don’t have a protective peel like citrus or mangoes.

That’s why many growers warn that pawpaws may arrive looking “ugly” but still taste amazing inside.

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📌 Key Takeaways

• Pawpaws bruise and spot easily, but spots ≠ rotten.

• A sweet tropical smell is normal. A sour, fermented odor is not.

• Cut one open before assuming the whole batch is spoiled.

• Always store ripe pawpaws in the fridge to extend freshness.