Tamarillo

A nightshade fruit

Tamarillo belongs to the same family as the tomato, eggplant, and potato — Solanaceae. It grows on a small fast-growing tree (4–6 m) and produces clusters of egg-sized fruits with smooth, slightly bitter skin and tart, seedy flesh. The skin is too astringent to eat; most people halve the fruit and scoop the flesh with a spoon.

Sweet vs. savory

The flavor is intensely tangy with a strong tomato-like note backed by passionfruit acidity — it doesn’t behave like a sweet fruit. New Zealand cooks (where tamarillo is widely grown) treat it as both: stewed with sugar for breakfast or pureed into chutneys served alongside lamb.

The name change

Until 1967 it was called the tree tomato, which made New Zealand exporters worry it would be lumped in with cheaper ordinary tomatoes. The country’s growers’ association renamed it tamarillo — a coined word evoking tamarind and Spanish amarillo (yellow). The branding stuck globally.

Skin trick

Like a tomato, tamarillo skin loosens after a 30-second dunk in boiling water followed by ice. Peeling it lets the fruit go into sauces and chutneys with cleaner texture.