Chico Fruit

Two names, one fruit

Chico fruit and sapodilla are the same species — Manilkara zapota. The fruit is called sapodilla in English-speaking and Caribbean markets, chico or chicozapote in Mexico, chiku in India and Pakistan, and zapote in much of Central America.

The differences in name reflect the fruit’s broad spread from Mexico across the Caribbean, into India, and through Southeast Asia — each region has its own local name.

Brown sugar in fruit form

Cut open a ripe chico fruit and the flesh tastes uncannily like brown sugar — sweet, malty, with a hint of pear and caramel. The texture is grainy, almost gritty, similar to a slightly underripe pear.

Underripe fruit contains tannins that make the mouth pucker terribly. The fruit must be picked hard and ripened off-tree, becoming soft and brown-fleshed before eating.

The chicle connection

The chico tree is the original source of chicle, the natural latex that was the base of chewing gum from the 1860s through the mid-20th century. Mayan and Aztec peoples chewed chicle long before its industrial commercialization.

Modern chewing gum mostly uses synthetic bases, but a small artisanal market for traditional chicle gum has revived in recent years, particularly among environmentally conscious consumers in Mexico and the US.

A Filipino dessert staple

In the Philippines, chico fruit (called chico) is a traditional dessert and breakfast fruit — eaten fresh, blended into shakes, or used in pies and ice creams. Chico ice cream is a regional specialty, especially in summer.

The fruit is also a popular farm crop in southern India, where it’s eaten with cream or used in fruit salads.