I like passionfruit, but my dad loves passionfruit. So, at my childhood home in the suburbs of Brisbane, he’d grow passionfruit vines on all of the low chain link fences bordering our backyard and, in season, those thickly woven vines would bear passionfruit by the hundreds. Some we’d pick, while others would wait and wrinkle and plop onto the ground, ripe and ready to eat.
We’d cut open the cardboardy shell of those suckers and the potent tang would hit our noses straight away. Even though we quickly flipped each half of the fruit the right way up to catch as much as possible, the juice would still drip down our fingers. If mum was around, we’d grab a teaspoon and dig in; if she wasn’t, we’d throw it back and gulp it down like an oyster from the half shell. A sharpness, a sweetness, a spasm and a shiver.
Crack a tinnie of One Drop’s Passionfruit Sour, and it’s like being transported to my childhood. That passionfruit stank bursts out, the pungent tartness interwoven with a smidge of sweetness. The first mouthful is a sour blast to the back of the palate; it’s hard to take that initial sip without involuntarily shaking your head and yelping: “Whoa!"
The flavour hangs around in the mouth as long as the fruit hung on the fence, and only drops off after you’ve had the full - and I mean full - passionfruit experience.
Mick Wust
Published February 28, 2020 2020-02-28 00:00:00
