Custard apples are a decadent and deliciously sweet sub-tropical fruit. The Australian custard apple is a hybrid of the sugar apple (Annona squamosa) and the cherimoya (Annona cherimola), and is unique to any other custard apples grown around the world. Originally native to South America, this luscious and flavoursome fruit has Australia as its largest commercial producer.
There are four main custard apple growing regions, all found on the east coast of Australia. These regions stretch from the Atherton Tablelands in tropical north Queensland down to Lismore sub-tropical NSW, allowing for a great supply of quality and delicious fruit throughout the season.
Tropical North Queensland kicks off the custard apple season, with the first fruit of the year ripe for the picking in late January/early February, followed by Yeppoon in Central Queensland. The season then follows the coast down to the Wide Bay area, and the Sunshine Coast starts producing by mid to late February. Northern New South Wales is the last region to produce with harvest starting around May each year.
Custard apple is a common name for a fruit, and the tree which bears it, Annona reticulata.
The fruits vary in shape, heart-shaped, spherical, oblong or irregular. The size ranges from 7 centimetres (2.8 in) to 12 centimetres (4.7 in), depending on the cultivar. When ripe, the fruit is brown or yellowish, with red highlights and a varying degree of reticulation, depending again on the variety. The flesh varies from juicy and very aromatic to hard with a repulsive taste.[3] The flavor is sweet and pleasant, akin to the taste of 'traditional' custard.
Custard apple may also be the name of some similar fruits produced by related trees: रामफल Ramphal Custard-apple - India
- Annonaceae, the soursop family.
- Asimina triloba, the "pawpaw", a deciduous tree, ranging from southern Ontario to Texas and Florida, that bears the largest edible fruit native to the United States or Canada.
- Annona cherimola, a tree and fruit also called cherimoya.
- Annona squamosa, a tree and fruit also called sugar apple or sweetsop
- Annona senegalensis, a tree and fruit called wild custard-apple
- Casimiroa edulis, under the Rutaceae (rue or citrus) family