Do you love tropical fruit as much as we do? iHeart Fruit Box will deliver the taste of the tropics right to your front door! Keep reading for a review of our iHeart Fruit Box experience.
iHeart Fruit Box was kind enough to send us their small Tropical Variety Box (5-7 pounds) to try. Below, we’ll fill you in on this exotic fruit purveyor’s mission, what we thought about our fruit box, and then we’ll take you on a virtual taste test of the fruit we tasted.
Check out our other plant-based reviews: Review of Renegade’s Plant-Based Salami Sampler, Review of Halal Guys’s Plant-Based Options, Rebel Cheese – Austin’s Vegan Cheese Shop, or Moroccan Vegan Cooking Class Review.
๐ iHEART FRUIT BOX
Based in Miami, Florida, iHeart Fruit Box slings organic, farm-to-table tropical fruit. We don’t mean fruit that’s readily available at your grocery store either; think cacao pods or soursop. iHeart Fruit Box truly brings the tropics to your doorstep. It is their philosophy that “One of life’s greatest honors is giving someone their first fruit.” And that’s a motto we can get behind!
iHeart Fruit Box grows much of their own fruit, but they also source fruit from local and international small farmers. They put a premium on seasonality. So you can be sure that all the fruit available on their website is in season.
You can purchase tropical fruit individually or in combination boxes. Currently they ship to the U.S. and Canada.
๐ฅ YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEW
Watch our full video review and/or scroll down to read our written review! We’d love it if you subscribed to our YouTube channel โค๏ธ
๐ WRITTEN REVIEW
PACKAGING
Our small Tropical Variety Box (5-7 pounds) came beautifully packaged in a thermal shipping bag lined with ice packs. The package itself arrived cool to touch. None of the fruit was damaged. The more delicate fruits were carefully wrapped in foam netting sleeves.
FRUIT
Now this is the fun part! During the unboxing, we found that we were sent 11 different types of tropical fruitโ6 of which were new to us. That was an exciting revelation. We are big fruit lovers and nab every new-to-us variety of produce we encounter, whether we’re grocery shopping or traveling.
We’ve had the opportunity to sample some of the fruit in our box during our travels to Hawaii, Jamaica, and the Philippines. Tasting produce from a region that’s not your own is such an awesome way to connect with local food cultures and eat as locals eat. But it was pretty cool to have exotic fruit delivered right to our doorstep. No passport necessary!
FRUIT RIPENING GUIDE
Our box was also packaged with a postcard containing a QR code linking to iHeart Fruit Box’s Fruit Ripening Guide. The guide was super helpful in terms of identifying the fruit inside our box and determining ripeness. Depending on the fruit’s durability, some are shipped slightly underripe to account for shipping transit timeโensuring that the fruit arrives to you fresh.
The Fruit Ripening Guide was incredibly educational. We learned about where many of the fruit we received are traditionally grown as well as their nutritional benefits. It also told us how to store the fruit, regardless of whether it was ready to eat or needed a few days to ripen.
OVERALL
Overall, we had a blast learning aboutโand of course TASTINGโall the fruit in our Tropical Variety Box. Ordering a box would be a fun activity for your entire family, or for a dinner party with your friends who have intrepid tastebuds. In fact, we would totally spring for another variety box for us to try with our fruit-obsessed loved ones.
Let’s skip to the good part: Now for our fruit taste test notes!
๐ฅญ FRUIT TASTE TEST
As we mentioned previously, we received 5-7 pounds of tropical fruit in iHeart Fruit Box’s Tropical Variety Box (small size). The pictures on the left were taken on the day the fruit arrived. The pictures on the right are of the fruit when they fully ripened.
1. MAMEY SAPOTE
- New to us but was one of our favorites of the box!
- Native to the Caribbean and South America.
- Arrived unripe. Stored at room temperature to ripen for a few days. Ripe when soft to touch.
- Taste and texture similar to pumpkin pie or sweet potato.
2. PASSION FRUIT
- Our first time trying fresh passion fruit, and it won’t be our last.
- Arrived unripe. Ripe when skin becomes wrinkled and fruit is soft to touch.
- Good source of antioxidants.
- Beautifully fragrant and sweet yet tart.
- Inside of shell is seedy and pulpy.
3. LONGAN
- Probably originated in Myanmar (Burma).
- Edible tree fruit in the Soapberry family, related to lychee and rambutan.
- Arrived ready to eat. Stored in the refrigerator, inside an unzipped Ziploc bag to prevent mold.
- Skin was easy to peel. Flesh was juicy, sweet and translucentโsimilar to a grape.
4. GUAVA
- Shipped green and hard. Placed in a paper bag at room temperature to ripen for a few days. Ripe when yellow, soft, and fragrant.
- Rich in fiber, minerals, and Vitamins A and C.
- Fragrance is the tropics in fruit form.
- Flavor was delightfully tart and floral, many describing it as a cross between pear and strawberry.
5. SAPODILLA
- New to us but was one of our favorites of the box!
- Probably originated in the Yucatan Peninsula and other parts of Southern Mexico.
- Arrived hard and unripe. Ripe when slightly wrinkly and soft enough to break with your hands.
- Flavor is similar to brown sugar and persimmon. Texture is grainy.
6. AVOCADO
- If you haven’t tried an avocado, we don’t know what to tell you!
- High in “good” fats that are thought to protect against heart disease.
- Arrived unripe. Ripe when pressing the fruit with your finger leaves an indentation.
- Rich flavor and buttery, velvety texture.
7. YELLOW DRAGONFRUIT
- The sweetest of the dragonfruit varieties.
- Arrived ripe. Stored in an unsealed Ziploc bag in the fridge to keep it fresh while the other fruit ripened.
- Mildly sweet flesh with a custardy texture.
8. STAR APPLE
- Delicacy in the West Indies and Central America.
- Arrived ripe. Stored in the fridge to keep it fresh while the other fruit ripened.
- Mildly sweet flavor with a gritty, plum-like texture and flesh with a milky appearance.
- Our first time trying this fruit and honestly not our favorite of the bunch.
9. MANGO
- If you haven’t eaten mango, what are you doing with your life?!
- Arrived unripe. Stored in a paper bag to ripen at room temperature for a few days. Ripe when fragrant, skin has changed color, and the fruit has softened to touch.
- High in Vitamin C.
- Creamy texture with citrusy, juicy flesh.
10. TREE TOMATO
- New to us but was one of our favorites of the box!
- Shipped slightly underripe. Allowed to ripen on the counter for a few days.
- Juicy, tender, mildly sweet flesh reminiscent of an ordinary tomato.
11. KEY LIMES
- Our first time trying fresh key limes.
- Citrus hybrid native to Southeast Asia.
- Packed slightly green for extended shelf life. Skin becomes yellow as it ripens.
- More fragrant and floral scented compared to ordinary limes.
- Essentially key lime pie but in fruit form!
We hope you enjoyed our review of our iHeart Fruit Box experience! If you’re like us and love sampling produce from all corners of the globe, what are you waiting for? Place an order and taste the tropics from the comfort of your home.
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