How did the Avocado Conquer the World?

While America has been smugly eating their guacamole and avocado toast, the rest of the world has been making all sorts of avocado advances. Why aren't you using an avocado sock? Should you be investing in the new Diet Avocados from Spain? And why aren't you drinking your lattes out of avocado shells like Australians do? Will and Mango dive deep into the world of avocados to determine why they took so long to catch on, and what Baywatch Nights has to do with their popularity. (Spoiler: Very little.)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, well, I know

(00:02):
you like to turn to me to keep up with
like the coolest things going on in the world, or
like trends happening, So I wanted to let you in
a little secret. Have you heard about the coolest way
to use an avocado right now? So I'm not really
off on super hip avocado trends. Like I saw a
restaurant ridiculed online for serving this deconstructed avocado toast which

(00:24):
was just half an avocado on one side of play
and then a piece of toast on the other. And
they didn't even do the work of smashing them together.
It was just like overpriced laziness. But I don't know
what what what trend are you talking about? It's actually
not a dish. So the coolest thing you can do
right now with an avocado is to propose with one.
And I'm not kidding about this. So the not Cosmo

(00:46):
and all these other places have declared that the avocado
proposal it's here, Mango, it's here, So I'm excited, but
I don't know what it is. Tell me all right,
So basically, people are slicing an avocado in half, taking
out a pit and then sticking a little ring in
so it stands up right there. Actually, this is kind
of grossing me out, but I'm trying to go with it.

(01:07):
And so then the moment is right and you just
queue up cold play, You get down on one knee,
you take that avocado out of your back pocket. I
don't know why they're suggesting to keep it in your
back pocket, and then you crack it open like a
ring box. And as the not puts it, quote, if
you love the farmer's market, this might be your dream proposal.
I like that it's the official proposal of like farmers markets. Yeah,

(01:30):
I've always looked for one of these. Well, today's show
is all about the creamy green fruit from Why you
Should Thank a Mailman for your guacamole obsession to win
avocado theft became so trendy, So we're about to get
knee high on avocados. Let's dive in. Hey their podcast listeners,

(02:06):
welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer and
on the other side of the soundproof glass, demonstrating the
absolute worst way to peel an avocado. I Honestly, I
can't even look at I know, I don't think you're
supposed to use a vegetable peeler on a Tristan Well anyway,
I'm gonna turn my head. But that's our friend and
producer Tristan McNeil. So I realized, you know mego, this

(02:29):
is a slightly grim way to start the show. But
I was reading about this recent wave of avocado related injuries,
or what they call avocado hand and people are doing
serious damage to their hands by trying and of course failing,
to cut into their avocados. So that's pretty crazy. Like
I hadn't heard about people injuring themselves on avocados. But
it does feel like the same as when bagels became

(02:52):
really popular in the nineties and suddenly like every local
news story was about people cutting themselves with bagels and
how to appropriately slice a baby eagle. It doesn't seem
that difficult, but I mean, I guess you don't get
avocados pre sliced. What's the solution. Well, it's actually become
a big enough problem that there's this British plastic surgeon
and he's been pushing for warning labels to be added

(03:13):
to avocados in the UK and apparently, yeah, seriously, apparently
he treats an average of four patients a week, four
patients a week for avocado based injuries. So, I mean,
it may seem weird to put a sticker and that
may actually sound silly, but you can't really blame him
for wanting to do something about this epidemic of avocado fails.
That's so weird. Like I mean, I feel like you

(03:35):
can cut an avocado with a butter knife. You don't
need something super sharp to do it. Well. While prepping
for today's show, one of my biggest takeaways was that
most Americans have always been pretty clueless when it comes
to these leathery fruits. And this confusion actually goes all
the way back to the early twentieth century. That's when
avocado production was first taking root in the US. But

(03:55):
before we get into the state side history, I do
want to go back a little further in time because
humans have actually been cultivating avocado trees for thousands of
years now. It goes as far back as five VC,
and this was mostly taking place in Central and South
America as well as Mexico, where the Aztecs were calling
the fruit, a word that they used for testicle, and

(04:17):
so that was based on what like the fruit shape. Yeah,
but but also because avocados typically grown pairs, which I
guess further the resemblance. But I get it, I get it. Yeah,
it's a great joke that kills at recess. But they
also used to be considered something of an aphrodisiac. But
that might have just been Europeans reading too much into
the words origin. Like apparently King Louis the fourteen nicknamed

(04:40):
avocados the good pair and French you know, pair the fruit,
not pair p A I R. But he called it
that because he claimed avocado has got him in the
mood and boosted his desire to mate. Well, Louis definitely
wasn't the last person to compare avocados to the shape
of a pair, because when avocados first started to catch
on in the US, people were actually calling them alligator pairs.
And makes sense. I mean, obviously that tough outer skin

(05:02):
and has that bumpy texture and green coloring. I mean,
he does kind of look like an alligator, but it
didn't really make for the most appetizing association, as you
can imagine. Yeah, I mean, I guess like biting into
an alligator seems like a tough cell. Yeah, and that's
exactly what the California Avocado Growers Exchange found when they
were trying to expand their business just beyond that home state.

(05:23):
And they claim that grim association with you know, with
reptiles was kind of ruining the whole operation. And even
worse it was, you know, of course, be smirching the
good name of the Laurel tree family to which these
avocados belong. And and this is serious because in n
seven the trade group released this statement and here's what
it says. That the avocado, an exalted member of the

(05:43):
Laurel family, should be called an alligator pair is beyond
all understanding. Yeah. I love that they thought this would
be the thing to change people's minds, Like, I know
how we'll get people on board. Let's the people to
everyone's love for Laurel trees. Yeah, that's all it took. Well,
I mean, it was maybe kind of a strange play,
but they did get smarter about the rebranding. The growers

(06:04):
slowly wean the public off of the alligator pair as
a nickname, and they first replaced it with a much
more appetizing butter pair, and then the somewhat redundant avocado
pair before they finally just got people to start calling
them avocados. But even once customers started calling them by
the right name, avocado is still faced a pretty uphill battle.

(06:24):
So why is that. Well, for one thing, if you
think about it, there, they're unlike any other fruits that
people were eating because they're not sweet, they're not really
good for cooking. They ripened off the tree. I mean,
people didn't really know what to do with them. Yeah,
it's finny to think that Mexican culture and cuisine just
took to it so quickly, but just one country north
were so perplexed by this fruit, like it took so

(06:46):
much rebranding and marketing for us to catch on. I mean,
the process took most of the twentieth century to get
us on board. Yeah, that's true, but it actually is
kind of fun to look back and see how avocados
kind of gradually took on the characteristics that we most
associate it with them today. For example, the need to
grow avocados only in the mildest parts of the country,
you know, where you'd find the water and short supply.

(07:07):
That really meant avocados often cost more than other domestic fruits,
and of course, marketers were aware of how expensive their
product was becoming, and that's really why they started pushing
for avocados to be paired with other upscale foods like
grape fruit or lobster. And in fact, in the late
nineteen twenties, and I've not seen this before doing our
research for this week, but the California Avocados Society started

(07:29):
taking out ads in Vogue and The New Yorker and
they were proclaiming the avocados to be the quote aristocrat
of salad fruits. I like, the avocados need to come
in top hats and monocles, just like, but you know,
to me, that's less advertising than just calling them alligator pairs. Yeah,
but the fruits fancy status kind of stuck, and by

(07:50):
the nineteen seventies, avocados had developed this reputation as really
more of a luxury item. For example, in nineteen seventy four,
the price of a single avocado had soared as high
as a full dollar. Now, now keep in mind that's
the equivalent of almost five dollars in today's money. That
is crazy. So what about avocado's other big claim, like
the idea that they're one of the world's healthiest superfoods.

(08:11):
When did that really come about? Well, it really took
off in the nineteen eighties, and as you might remember,
this is when nutrition experts really started to crack down
on America's fat consumption. So low fat food started appearing
on store shelves, and every celebrity you could think of
was pushing some sort of patented diet or crazy new
piece of exercise equipment, and you know, people begin looking

(08:32):
for more and more ways to reduce their fat and
take avocad has became a pretty popular target. But wait,
aren't avocad is full of like the good kind of
fat that kind of actually helps us reduce cholesterol. Like,
why would experts tell people not to eat them? Well,
at the time, nutritionists were worried that the American public
wouldn't be able to wrap their heads around that distinction
between the types of fats, you know, between the good

(08:54):
mono unsaturated fats and and the bad saturated fats. So
instead they just told people to avoid fats altogether. And
that's why, strangely enough, it actually fell to the avocado
growers to educate the public about the fruit's true nutritional value.
So in the late eighties, the California Avocado Commission, they
worked closely with researchers and funded all sorts of studies

(09:15):
on the health benefits of their product. And then the
growers spread the good news with a TV ad campaign,
and it started Angie Dickinson, and the ads were a
huge hit, but they were also pretty scandalous for the time. So,
so here's what the ad was. It showed Angie stretched
out in these gold stilettos and a white leotard and
she was eating half an avocado with a spoon. And

(09:36):
after she lays out how tasty and nutritious the avocados are,
she turns to the camera and asked, would this body
lie to you? I had, actually, I had forgotten where
I got that line from. I know I used that
line a lot, and I didn't remember that Angie had
created that. I mean, I guess the nutrition experts were
wrong to doubt the American public like, we can absolutely
understand the health benefits of avocados as long as they're

(09:58):
explained to us by a beauty movie star. So I
do feel like Kanye as I'm about to say this
because Andie Dickinson, you did a good job, and I'm
gonna let you finish. But Mr Ripe Guy is the
best spokesperson in the avocado industry. I can't say I'm
familiar with his work, So who is Mr Ripe Guy?
I can't believe you're asking me that. No. This goes

(10:20):
back to the avocado struggle. So after surviving the anti
fat movement of the eighties, sales were still suffering to
the public's lack of knowledge about the fruit. So one
prime example is that people weren't even sure when to
eat avocados. People kept trying to eat them when they
were like bright green, because that's when they look the prettiest,
instead of waiting until the fruit to turn like a
murky brown color, and that's actually when it's most delicious

(10:42):
or the rightest to eat. But to combat the problem,
the Avocado Commission partnered with an ad agency and created
their very own mascot, Mr Ripe Guy and uh. In
true eighties fashion, this California character was basically just an
anthropomorphic avocado with a pair of sunglasses on. Wait, you
know what this reminds me of? And I collected all

(11:04):
of these from I can't remember whether it was McDonald's
or Hardise or what it was, but the remember the
California Raising definitely, so it definitely feels like California Raisin
rip off. But someone would show up in an avocado
suit at various events and uh, this was around the country.
They'd share tips as Mr Ripe Guy on how to
pick and prep avocados and just generally sing the fruits praises.

(11:26):
But the best part of the campaign was when the
Commission launched a nationwide search to find Miss Ripe and uh.
Women were encouraged to mail in video cassettes with themselves
explaining why they deserved this coveted honor and uh apparently
the winner would receive a free trip to Hollywood and
a walk on role on Baywatch Nights. I like that

(11:47):
it didn't even occur to them that maybe they should
win a lifetime supply of avocados. I feel like maybe
they didn't think through this campaign fully. Yeah, I mean,
maybe they would have gotten more people to enter, but
in the end, at least one woman was interested in
what was on offer. The lucky winner was Robin Nardone
of Chicago, who I'm sure you remember and she told reporters,

(12:08):
gained to be Miss Ripe is like a dream come true.
I will bear the title proudly. M that's really sweet.
And of course everybody still talks about that episode of
Baywatch Nights that she was on, right, definitely, I'm curious.
So did these kinds of stunts pay off for avocado growers? Well,
it's hard to say exactly how much of the industry's
growth is due to Mr and Mrs Ripe Guy, but

(12:28):
there's no doubt that the avocado consumption has gone way
way off since the nineties. For example, by nine, the
average American was eating about one point five pounds of
avocado per year, whereas in two thousand sixteen that number
had actually grown to seven point one pounds per year
according to the U. S d. A. Yeah, and and
to put that in perspective, the hass Avocado Board reported

(12:49):
that four d eighty four million avocados were consumed in
two thousand, which sounds like a lot, right, But you
fast forward to two thousand twelve and the total had
risen to nearly one point five billion, which is basically
are increase over just a decade. I mean, that is
pretty amazing. It's also pretty amazing that it's taken us
this long to finally mention the H word. So I

(13:11):
do want to shift gears and talk about what is
undoubtedly the biggest name in the business, and that's the
hass avocado. I know we need to explore how the
variety came to dominate the market, as well as what
that monopoly might be causing us to miss out on,
which sounds good. But before we get into it, let's
take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius

(13:44):
and we're talking all things avocado, okay, mango. So we've
been charting the course of how misunderstood fruit like the
avocado wound up as one of the world's trendiest superfoods.
And so now we're getting to what's probably my favorite
part of the story, which is the contribution of a
Californian maleman named Rudolph Has. And while this story isn't
widely known, I'm willing to bet that the name sounds

(14:05):
familiar to most of our listeners, and for very good reason,
because hass avocados are hands down the most popular avocado,
not only in the country, but in the entire world.
In fact, there's a good chance that most people have
only ever eaten the hass avocado. And that's because percent
of the avocados sold in the US and about eighty
percent worldwide are hass avocados. I'm honestly not sure I

(14:27):
could even name a different kind of avocado. Well, here's
what's crazy, though, is that there's actually more than nine
hundred varieties of avocados. You know, some of these things
have very different shapes and textures and flavors than that
single type that we're used to. But thankfully, the one
type we do have is a pretty good one. Hass
avocados have a strong flavor, they're packed with healthy oil,

(14:48):
so it's not like we're getting the short into the
stick on this. And and there's a reason has is
the most popular name in avocados, even if that popularity
does result in in a real lack of diversity on
the store shelves. So speaking of the name, this is
sort of embarrassing. But I used to think that Hass
was just the name of the family farm or like
the company that grew them, you know, like Dole or Chiquita.

(15:09):
But I didn't know it was actually a fruit variety. Yeah,
and I don't think most people do know that, but
so so to get back to that, let's get back
to Rudolph Hass And he was a postman by trade
in the nineteen twenties and then got into horticulture after
he saw this magazine ad that showed an avocado tree
with dollar bills growing out of it. I mean, that
sounds pretty convincing. So he was hoping to make some

(15:31):
money on the side and started buying up seeds and
raising these resulting trees at his family home. And this
was just outside of l A, So he was grassed
from the larger plants to multiply that crop. But there
was one seedling in particular. He described it a stubborn
baby tree grown from a Guatemalan seed of unknown parentage,
or that's how one local newspaper put it. That it

(15:53):
wouldn't accept a graph no matter how hard Hass tried.
He considered cutting it down, but instead he just to
decide and let it grow unattended as as somewhat of
an experiment. And this turned out to be the best
decision of hass his life, because when the tree finally
bore fruit, it's avocado has tasted better than any other
of the varieties available. Well, I mean, first of all,

(16:15):
I just love that the world's most popular avocado as
a result of like dumb luck. But also I I'm
really curious about these other varieties that predate the hass,
like what were the go to avocados of the time
and what made the hass one so much better. Well,
at the time, the prevailing avocado was called the fuerte,
which means strong and Spanish. And admittedly, the fuerte looks

(16:37):
more appetizing than the hass. You know, you don't have
that bumpy, thick, black skin of the hass. The the
fuerte avocado has more of a smooth and kind of
a thin skin, and it actually turns a green color
as it ripens. But you know, when you think about taste,
hass avocados are way richer and nuttier and creamier than
the fueertas, And so this gave them a big advantage

(16:58):
in Rudolph Hass his mind. But of course taste wasn't
the only thing they had going for them. Another big
advantages that the hass avocado trees were easier to grow
than the fuerte trees. They also have longer harvest seasons
than other avocados, and they can produce larger quantities of
fruit after just a couple of years. But there's one
thing that's maybe even more important than all of those things,

(17:19):
and that's that these avocados are easy to handle and
and even ship long distances. And and that's thanks to
that alligator thick skin that we were talking about before.
So when Rudolph Hass realized that he stumbled upon something special,
he patented his tree in nineteen thirty five and started
working with a local grower to promote this new variety.
You know, it's funny when you're talking about the passability

(17:41):
of these avocados. You think about other fruit like the
red Delicious or the Cavendish bananas, and they are always
sacrificing flavor for that durability, and it's amazing to think
that the avocado doesn't do that. But uh, I don't
think I realized you could actually patent a tree. Well
I didn't either, and apparently neither did anybody else, because
you know, sadly the patent was all but ignored by

(18:03):
its competitors. In fact, this is how Rudolph's granddaughter, Cindy
Miller explained the ordeal in an article about her family story.
She writes, since it was the first pen ever issued
on a tree, it got no respect. Growers would buy
one from Mr Brokaw, who had the exclusive right to
produce the nursery trees. They would then regraph their whole

(18:23):
grove with the budwood from that one tree. For that reason,
Rudolf has made only five thousand dollars and royalties on
his first patent. That's pretty insane, like five grand for
coming up with the world's tastiest avocado. It's crazy. Yeah,
it's a it's a weird story, but there is a
silver lining for that name. So the avocados that bear
his name have become ubiquitous with the fruit, and today

(18:45):
millions of his trees can now be found all over
the globe. And maybe the craziest part about this whole
thing is that all of those trees are genetically descended
from that single mother tree that has planted on his property,
and that was nearly a hundred years ago. In fact,
it's estimated that about eight of all us avocados or
descendants of the hass avocado mother tree. I mean, that's

(19:07):
just so weird to think about. And the original tree
actually lasted quite a while too. It was on that
Hass property until it finally lost the battle with something
called root rot disease, and that was back in two
thousand two. But according to Alice Obscura, you can still
make a pilgrimage to see the preserved woods from the
tree at the broke on Nursery and Ventura, and there's

(19:27):
even a plaque there to market its original location in Lahabra,
which I think that takes care of my summer vacation
plans for that. But you know, uh, Hass having his
patent undermine like that kind of reminds me of something
weird I noticed while researching, and that's the sheer volume
of crime that the fruit attracts. Like I wouldn't think

(19:47):
this before, but you know, you mentioned earlier that avocados
were worth the equivalent of what like five dollars each
in the nineteen seventies, and at the time, that high
value sparked a wave of avocado that's throughout the ord
words of southern California. And this was hardly an isolated incident.
So just last year, three men were arrested in California
for selling over three hundred thousand dollars worth the stolen

(20:10):
hass avocados. I mean, that's insane. And when avocado prices
spiked in New Zealand back in two thousand and sixteen,
farmers were hit with over forty large scale thefts within
a six month period. Wow. I mean, I had no
idea that avocado crime was so prevalent, But if you
think about it, I mean, it does make sense. I
remember back in our episode on cheese, we talked about

(20:30):
how cheese is the most shoplifted item in the world,
and that's because it's relatively a small item, it's always
in demand, and and it does tend to cost more
than other food. So it feels like we've got the
same thing going here with the avocados exactly. And and
we already mentioned how avocados have long been viewed as
a luxury food due to their price, So in a way,
all the crimes surrounding them is to be expected. But

(20:52):
one thing nobody expected was the way that avocado farmers
in Mexico have been fighting back against their own local
form of avocado crimes. Because there's actually one town there
that has its own paramilitary avocado protection force. Wait, so
where is this It's in a town called Tonsitaro and
it's in the Michoakhan region of Mexico. It's uh, it's

(21:15):
basically avocado country. The townships over a million dollars worth
of fruit every single day. But back in two thousand six,
drug cartels, who are feeling the pinch of a law
enforcement crackdown, started turning their attention to Tonsitaro's avocado producers.
So of course things get insane, right like the growers
quickly become the target of threats, their kidnappings, even some murders.

(21:36):
There was a talk of the cartel's season control of
the orchards entirely, and that's when the avocado producers decided
to band together and fight back. They create their own
local protection force, which was half funded by the government,
and today they wear a body armor. They carry these
high powered weapons to ward off the cartels and also
it gives the citizens a sense of safety. I mean,

(21:57):
this sounds scary to me and kind of extreme, but
actually it's worked so um. Avocado crimes are way down
in Tonsitora, which has allowed the town to once again
focus on what it does best, which is avocados. And
in two thousand thirteen, We saw this when a group
of four and fifty students in the town set a
record for the world's largest serving of guacamole. It weighed

(22:17):
an astounding six thousand pounds. Oh wow, I mean, I
guess it makes sense that they had those guards on hand,
because if you think about that much guacamole is definitely
gonna attract at least a few pieces, I would imagine. Yeah,
But now that we've tackled the ceedee world of avocado crimes,
there's at least one part of avocado history that I
want to get to. But first, let's take another quick break. Okay, mango,

(22:51):
So I told you my favorite story. Now it's your turn.
What's your favorite story from the avocado history. So at
the top of the show, we talked about the recent
dick and accidents where people have stabbed themselves while prepping avocados,
and while there's definitely some user error at play there,
the real problem is that the avocado has this enormous pit.
And while most foods contain seeds small enough to be

(23:12):
swallowed or excreted by humans and other animals, avocado pits
can be as big as golf balls, which means that
swallowing them is off the table for most of us.
M I've always actually wondered about that because from an
evolutionary perspective, it doesn't seem like the most effective way
for this plant to spread its seeds around. Well, it
isn't anymore, but it used to be incredibly effective. So

(23:34):
the part of avocado history that I love the most
is the part that explains why the pit is so huge,
and for that we actually need to travel all the
way back to the dawn of the Cenozoic Era, which
is the period after the extinction of dinosaurs when mammals
first started to take the stage. But the mammals of
the Cenozoic Era weren't just any mammals. They were actually
enormous species known as megafauna, and they roamed the Western

(23:56):
hemisphere in droves. All right, So you're talking about things like,
you know, sabretooth tigers and mammoths and those rhinos that
were honestly, I think they were like the size of
house boats, right, Yeah, that's right. So another dominant megafauna
species was the lusted on, which were these fifteen foot tall,
two ton ground slots and they wandered the grassy plains

(24:16):
of Americas, and just like the slots of today, lusted
on mostly eight leaves and grass to survive, but occasionally
they would chow dow on more satisfying treats like the
tasty avocado. So the avocado, it's also a product of
the Cenozoic era, it is, and actually that's really when
the avocado plant came to its prime. So these giant
slots would swallow whole avocados. And because these creatures were

(24:38):
so massive, their digestive systems were able to process the
big seeds without a problem. So they'd kind of feast
and then travel around with the seeds in their stomachs,
and then they plopped them out in some far away
place and new trees could thrive without competition. It was
basically an evolutionary wind wind for everybody. And that's probably
why we still have these large pitted avocados today. Wait,

(25:00):
are there still mammals that can eat the avocado pits
like that? I mean, you know, mega fauna are one thing,
but I feel like most slaws would choke if they
try to eat a whole avocado at this point. Yeah,
you're right. I mean, climate change kind of wiped out
most of the mega fauna in the western hemisphere. This
was about thirteen thousand years ago, so according to researchers,
North America lost about seventy of it's mega fauna at

(25:21):
the time, and South America lost So the vast majority
of these large creatures that had helped these avocado trees
flourished in the first place were no longer around to
feed on them. So I don't get it. I mean,
why would wild avocados still produce such large pits if
if it's not beneficial for them. No, it's a good question.
And I was actually flipping through this book by Connie

(25:42):
Barlow called The Ghosts of Evolution, and she says that
avocados giant seeds are what we called an evolutionary anachronism,
So none of today's slots could possibly digest to see
that large, but the big pits persist anyway, And as
Barlow puts it, quote after thirteen thousand years, the avocado
is clue is that the great mammals are gone, and
the truth is thanks to us, that's completely fine, right,

(26:05):
Like the avocado doesn't need to change because it's got
new champions. We've learned to deal with the big seeds
and spread them out in ways that don't involve our
digestive tracks. Well, I guess that makes sense. And but
but what about those thirteen thousand years between the death
of the mega fauna and human cultivation of these avocados.
It feels like in all those intervening years, the big

(26:25):
seeds they still somehow managed to get spread around even
without those giant mammals. Yeah. So one theories that squirrels
and other rodents could have all found avocados rotting on
eten on the surface and then buried the pits for safekeeping,
and then they'd return later and find that there were
these massive trees that's sprout in the place. But I
also read an article in Smithsonian and it suggested that

(26:45):
jaguars might have been able to swallow and digest the
seeds too. So, as they put it, quote, the identities
of the avocados dispersers shifted every few million years. But
from an avocados perspective, a big mouth is a big mouth,
and a friendly gut is a friendly gut. M I
feel like those are words to live by mango, or
at least for an avocado. Really, though, it's wild to

(27:07):
think that we have these giants slows to thank for
all of our avocado toasts and orders of chips and guacamole.
And you know, while they aren't swallowing avocados hole like
our mega fauna buddies once did, humans have planted them
all over the world. So all in all, I feel
like we've been pretty good stewards for the avocado. Well unlikely,
it is, right, because not only is the avocado pit

(27:27):
way too large for humans to swallow or digest, it
can also be toxic to us. So animals like rhinos,
which are descended from those house boat sized ancestors you mentioned,
they can actually stomach the toxic pits just fine, but
humans and most other mammals lack enzyme systems and liver
is strong enough to ward off that kind of toxicity.
And in fact, there's this old South American recipe for

(27:48):
rat poison that I just found that UH instructs the
users to mix some avocado pits with traditional rodent bait
like cheese or lard, and that will take care of
the problem. Mhm. I do like that a little tox
pit isn't going to stop us from eating nearly two
billion pounds of avocados each year, speaking which how's I
don't want to look, but how's Tristan doing over there?

(28:08):
We're gonna need to take another trip to the er. No,
but those avocados really aren't peeled, So why don't we
do a quick fact off and then we can help
the poor guy out. So most people have heard that
a good way to ripe an avocados fast is to
put them in a paper bag with like bananas or

(28:30):
ripe apple. But if you're looking for more avocado gear
and accessories, you can always purchase an avocado sock. It's
a hundred percent wold bag that supposedly ripens the fruit
within twenty four hours, and according to the website, it
ripens it more gently than a paper bag. Also, it
works as a convenient carrying sock for when you want
to sling an avocado over your shoulder and just transport

(28:52):
the fruit and style. Well, let me know how it
goes if you order one of those. I think I'll
wait on your experience first. All right, So here's a
trend I definitely won't be indulging in, and that's the
avo latte. And this is an Australian specialty where you
serve a latte and the hollowed out husk of half
an avocado. And while it started out as an Instagram
joke at the Truman Cafe in Melbourne when an employee

(29:13):
makes coffee and milk and an avocado shell, apparently customers
have started pouring in for the drink and other cafes
have started serving it in response. Well, if you love
avocados but I hate the pitts, Marx and Spencer is
apparently selling a cocktail avocado. So this is according to
the Telegraph. But the fruit looks less like a traditional
alligator pair, you know, the kind we all know and love,
and more like a zucchini. But the big advantage, of course,

(29:36):
is that they don't have a seed in them, and
while the fruit is grown in Spain, they're apparently really
hard to find. Mark and Spencer only carries them in
December for some reason. But uh, maybe we'll be getting
him stateside soon. All right. So we were talking about
avocados being a member of the prestigious Laurel family previously,
and I was a little curious what that meant, so
I looked it up and in addition to the Laurel

(29:56):
reads that you might get for competing in the ancient
Greek games. The avocado has some pretty well known relatives
in the laurel family. The fruit is cousins with bay leaves, sassafrass,
and cinnamon. Oh, it's a good family to be a
part of. So one of the strangest facts about avocados
is that they never ripened on the trees, so basically
farmers can plan when they want to pluck them and

(30:17):
just store them up there fresh for six or seven months.
All right, Well, here's an avocado variation that no one needs,
and it's avocado light. It's a diet avocado that apparently
contains thirty percent less fat than your average avocado. Apparently
it's a milder taste, but it's a juice here avocado.
I've got to say, I'm avocado with fewer calories that

(30:38):
taste more watery. Just it doesn't appeal to me. But
if they can make an avocado zero, maybe I'll consider it. Well.
I think between a diet avocado and proposing with avocados,
you truly have your pulicy on the worst things to
do with an avocado. So I'm gonna have to give
the trophy to you well. Thank you very much, and
thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
great facts about avocad those. We've been looking forward to

(31:01):
doing this episode because of the national obsession with avocados
these days, so we'd love to hear from you. You You
could always email us part Time Genius at how Stuff
Works dot com. You can call fact hotline that's one
eight four four PT Genius, or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again

(31:32):
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(31:52):
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