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U.S.|In the Hills of Puerto Rico, Feasting on a Very Smelly Fruit
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/us/puerto-rico-durian.html
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“I don’t like to use the word ‘smell’,” said Juan Miranda Colón, a self-described fanatic of the world’s most odoriferous fruit. “I prefer to say it has an aroma.”
Mr. Miranda, a farmer in Puerto Rico, was minutes away from feasting on the fruit, durian, and as its stink wafted through the humid, sticky air of the rainforest around him, he said his tongue tasted sweet with anticipation.
“I consider it the No. 1 fruit on the planet,” he said resolutely as he watched others messily shove gobs of custardy durian flesh into their mouths. “I start eating, eating, eating. I can’t control myself. I wish I had a second stomach.”
It was early August, and Mr. Miranda was taking part in an annual ritual at Panoramic Fruit, a farm 30 dizzying minutes up a potholed, zigzagging road from the western Puerto Rican city of Mayagüez. A multinational collection of durian fanatics had gathered for the harvest.
An electrician had trekked from Tennessee to get his fix. A doctor had flown in from central California. There was a couple from Florida, and a family from Texas. Desperate would-be buyers from the other side of the island had also come, unannounced and imploring the farm manager for durian.
