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Hokkaido Yubari Melon

One of the most expensive fruit on Earth. In 2016, a supermarket in Amagasaki bought a pair of Yubari King melons at auction with a winning bid of ¥3 million.

 

From Wikipedia, this melon seems to be a hybrid cultivar and is the specialty of Yubari, Hokkaido.

 

Just before my trip, I was watching a documentary espousing the greatness of this melon. I remembered seeing the Japanese host, for a fleeting moment, casting aside her usual Japanese decorum and grace for just a split second moment to almost timidly grab a piece of the melon from the 2 TV commentators from Taiwan and then breaking into a big wide smile and softly nodding how great tasting this melon is.

 

The best such melons should have about 18% natural sugars. This small slice, which cost me 350Yen, was perhaps not as sweet, even though it was still plenty nectar-like in sweetness. The flesh however, was not the cranky hard crunch - it was a mellow marshmallowy that exploded with fruity juices that shocked my senses with both flavours and tastes. (It was bells ringing aloud sensorially!)

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Uploaded on July 4, 2016
Taken on June 27, 2016