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I'm new/ignorant to using avocados and never really enjoyed them until 3 months ago when I bought some on a whim. The avocados actually tasted great. They were creamy and had the consistency of butter. The seed was a bit of a pain to clean, as the skin around the seed would stick to the avocado, so I had to pick it out. Also the avocado skin would tear easily if I were to eat it with a spoon.

For the past week, the avocados I've been buying taste awful. It feels like I'm eating Aloe Vera or some other type of plant. The avocado is easy to clean (the seed pops out easily) but they taste watery, grassy and bland. It reminded me of why I didn't like avocados. Also they're not mushy/creamy like the previous ones I was buying. In fact, they're hard, even if they seem soft on the outside.

My question is, are these just bad/unripe avocados or are they a totally different type? If so, which are the nice type?

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    Maybe the were not ripe enough or a different quality. Hass avocados, when ripe tend to have a brown-ish darker skin tone. Different varieties may remain green and have a bitter taste when unripe
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos
    Apr 21, 2018 at 0:51
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    Avocados have had a couple, three rough years with drought fire and disease from CA thru Mex. Things seem to be getting better. I even got a good smooth Florida one the other week, but like onions, we just have to wait it out.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Apr 21, 2018 at 21:48
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    Unripe fruits can be bitter, rank, and just nasty. I've had the odd fully-ripe fruit that carries that off flavor as well.
    – CNSKnight
    Apr 16, 2019 at 20:17
  • Over a year later, and production is still spotty at best. There are some giant pebbly skinned ones from the Caribbean. Excellent flavor, but you have to be very lucky to find them. The California crop looks stunted again this year.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Sep 23, 2019 at 23:07
  • It also depends on where you live. For example avocados from Thailand taste nothing like avocados from northern Mexico...
    – D3vtr0n
    Sep 24, 2019 at 0:45

2 Answers 2

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"Watery, grassy and bland" and "not mushy/creamy" (a.k.a hard) match my experience of avocados that aren't sufficiently ripe. An avocado should be very soft and creamy when it's ripe. (But not brown/grey/gross - that's over-ripe.)

At least in Israel, avocados are sold somewhat unripe, since that prolongs their shelf life, and because soft ripe avocados bruise much easier than rock-hard unripe ones. If you buy an avocado that isn't ripe yet, you should wrap it in some newspaper, and leave it out of the fridge until it's ripe. depending on how unripe your avocado is, that can take a week or more.

I'm afraid I don't know the names of American Avocado varieties, but my experience has been exactly the same with the green smooth-skinned elongated ones, small black rough-skinned ones that peel easily, and roundish, leathery-skinned green ones. When ripe, they all taste pretty much the same.

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All the avocados I know are obviously too hard when unripe; and brown/gray, stringy, and visually grossly unappealing inside when overripe. So I think it is likely that your new avocados aren't bad or unripe, but you are now getting a different variety of avocado than the ones you previously enjoyed so much.

There are quite a few different varieties. One clue is when you said, "the avocado skin would tear easily if I were to eat it with a spoon." The variety, "Hass" has a very thick leathery skin, not probably the type you liked, since the skin of Hass is quite robust.

The Hass is also very common in grocery stores (at least in my area), and I get the feeling lots of people think it is the best. So it wouldn't surprise me if you initially happened upon some other type of avocado, liked it, and then your next purchase was of the ubiquitous Hass, which maybe you don't care for.

I have had some avocados with such a thin skin it's almost like a fine cellophane layer on the outside of the avocado flesh. Unfortunately, I don't know name of those, so sorry, this is only a partial answer. Someone more knowledgeable than I am will certainly be able to tell what they are. There really are lots of different kinds.

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    I have sometimes had Haas avacados with skin that tears easily -- not paper thin, but the skin seems to get thinner as the avocado ripens. (Or maybe it just adheres less to the flesh underneath, making it easier to tear.)
    – Erica
    Sep 22, 2018 at 13:35
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    Those thin-skinned, (shinny?) is likely a so-called Florida Avocado - less oily in my experience. Proper cultivar names can be found here
    – CNSKnight
    Apr 16, 2019 at 20:14

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