By RIPE, checked against a produce manager's cues. Published .
Look for raised, coarse netting over a tan-gold background and smell the stem end: a sweet, musky aroma means it is ready. Cantaloupe softens after picking but does not get sweeter, so buy it as close to ready as you can.
What to check
👁️
Looknetting raised and pronounced (it develops as the melon matures on the vine); background color tan-gold, not green. A smooth, clean dip at the stem end means it slipped off the vine when ripe; a ragged stub means it was cut early.
🤲
Feelthe blossom end (opposite the stem) should give slightly.
👃
Smellsweet and musky at the stem end. A cold melon from a refrigerated case smells faint even when ripe, so cup it in your hand a moment first.
Common mistakethumping it like a watermelon. Smell tells you more.
Written by the team behind RIPE, a free app that reads a photo of the whole produce pile and rings the ripest ones. Every cue above is one you can check with your own hands, and it all works with no app at all.
Where this comes from
These cues match the public guidance from university extension services. Read them yourself:
Flip it over and look at the field spot: a creamy, buttery-yellow patch means it ripened in the field, while a white or pale green patch means it was picked too early. Full answer
How do you pick a ripe honeydew?
Feel for a slightly waxy or tacky rind and press the blossom end for a slight give. Full answer
How do you ripen an avocado quickly?
Put it in a closed paper bag at room temperature, and add a banana to speed it up. Full answer
Or just show us the one in your hand
Take a photo of a single piece, filling the frame, in decent light. Free, no signup, and it tells you what it cannot see.
You just read the cue for one piece. RIPE reads a photo of the entire display, draws numbered rings on the ones worth taking, and tells you why in the same plain words these guides use. Then it remembers what you brought home and nudges you before it turns.
It claims only what a camera can actually see. Every verdict ends by handing the last check back to your hands, which is the part these guides just taught you.
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