India doesn't have a real Spring and Autumn - only Summer, Monsoon and Winter in most places. Where I live, a relatively pleasant dry season happens in Jan/Feb, summer runs from about March to September, and the Monsoon from October to December (it approximates to Pleasant; Damn Hot/ Humid; and Wet; respectively).
Summer, while unpleasant, does offer a lot of colourful tropical flora and of course, the main attraction: the Mango season, which begins in April and ends about September.
The varieties that have shown up here so far:
Alphonso (Early season, orange flesh, fibreless, excellent bouquet and texture).
Himayat (Early- to mid-season, straw-yellow flesh, buttery, fibreless, distinct earthy/pungent flavour).
Sendura/Sindoora (Early-season, orange flesh, small fruit, smooth texture, distinct flavour. Hybrid of a cultivar Senorita from the Philippines with older Indian cultivars).
Banganapalli (The sweetest peninsular Indian cultivar, and also the highest volume cultivar in the world. Yellow flesh, juicy, intensely sweet, moderately large fruit which is used as a table mango or pulped commercially for juice. Unripe green ones are usable for pickles and condiments.)
Jawahar (Modern hybrid of several Northern and Southern cultivars, large fruit, firm yellow/orange flesh, exclusively used as a table mango, keeps for weeks without spoiling at room temperature. Can only be consumed when fully ripe, unripe fruit tend to be tart.)
There are numerous others that will show up as the season progresses, but for now, the best value for me is the Sendura/Sindoora/Senorita, followed by Banganapalli. By end-May/early-June, several mid-season cultivars will show up, including the prized Malgova, a large green fruit with buttery straw-yellow flesh, intensely sweet with a distinct earthy, pungent flavour.
Malgova is not produced commercially in large quantities these days, because it is a shy bearer and bears fruit only in alternate years, hence it has been supplanted by various other cultivars that are prolific bearers and bear fruit every year. I do have a tree that produces about ~50-100 fruits in a good year, but it's shy and choosy. It needs lots of bees and insects during the previous monsoon for pollination, a brief spell of summer rain, followed by a lot of sunshine and hot weather to concentrate the sap before picking. Climate Change and changing consumer preferences may extinct the Malgova within a few decades, after a long run estimated at ~1200-1500 years since it was first bred and cultivated. The trees will be around, but the fruits may not make it to market - it will survive purely as an heirloom variety, like most of the 4000-odd mango cultivars in the subcontinent (only about 50-100 are commercially cultivated at scale).
Edit: The best weather for growing mangoes in the US is in FL, TX and SoCal. Most varieties can't tolerate ground frost, though some Northern Indian varieties have been bred for frost-resistance.
Ponkan seems to be similar to the Kamala Orange of Central India - a variety of the Mandarin orange that is edible even when the outer skin is green. It's very sweet with minimal tartness.
Today, I got some organic Himayat & Alphonso Mangoes from a Women's self-help cooperative at a vend in a quiet residential neighbourhood (similar to stands in farmer's markets). They had apparently hooked up with an organic farm somewhere in the boonies, bought the mangoes wholesale, sorted and ripened them and sold them at retail at the stand.
I can't complain - the Himayat was 98 on a scale of 100, and the Alphonso about 94/100. Neither was excessively sweet, but the texture and flavour of the Himayat was outstanding - buttery, earthy and with a lingering extended finish. As mangoes go, it is the most expensive peninsular mango at retail here - the equivalent of about $1 to $1.5/lb. Each mango weighs about 1 lb.
A variety of Irwin is grown in Central India, but it rarely makes it to retail here - almost all are exported to Japan, which pays a premium for purple-coloured Irwins.
Another place with great mangos is Taiwan--the "Ai'erwen" or Irwin mangos are the best. But Taiwan produces a lot of incredible fruit: a custard apple called the "shijia," peaches, pineapples, bananas, etc. The flavor of a pineapple is quite different when it's harvested fully ripe and you eat it fresh: there is an almost nutty flavor on top of the sweetness and tartness. Fully ripened and fresh-picked bananas are much more aromatic than the kind we get here in the States--shipped in from elsewhere. Then there's a type of orange called the "ponkan" that is really good: it's green on the outside, orange inside, and the rind peels off and detaches easily from the fruit inside. In Japan, the peaches and apples are out of this world if you catch them in season--but just about everything foodwise is superb there. What I miss most about Japan is some of the special tsukemono (pickled things), the tofu varieties (my favorite was kurogoma dofu--black sesame tofu), and green tea ice cream.
Thanks for the info. I once spent a summer in West Africa (it was rainy season). We ate mangos June and July, so fragrant and delicious. The locals called them 'plums.' They were good sized. Then, they were suddenly unavailable in the market, so I supposed the season had ended. Nice memory.
Chennai, India - the birthplace of celebrity chef Padma Lakshmi, as well as the hometown of Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the mother of Kamala Harris.
I grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and mangoes and guavas were my favorite things to eat. Where in India do you live? It is one of my favorite vacation destinations :)
Except in Florida, where there are numerous varieties in Farmer's markets, most of the US probably only sees Tommy Atkins (which has a reddish blush) and Ataulfo, grown in Mexico:
From what I understand, most of us in the States get one kind of mango and it's kind of the mango equivalent of a Red Delicious apple. I would like to try the other kinds!
Thank you for your posting about mango . I always learn something new here .
Thank you for this informative mouth watering information. So many varieties of this remarkable delicious fruit I’d never heard of. Lucky you! Enjoy your bounty. I heard about the heatwave affecting parts of India where temps were as high as 51C. Hope it is not impacting you or the mangoes. Thanks again