Why Strawberries Aren't As Sweet Anymore

Have you ever tried making a strawberry dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth, only to end up with something disappointingly bland? It's not you; it's the strawberries. According to a 2021 study published in Horticulture Research (via Oxford Academic), participants said most strawberries they tasted weren't sweet enough. This isn't a case of underperforming strawberry farms, either — it's all by design.

Back in 2012, Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor from Cornell University, dropped by NPR's "All Things Considered" podcast to explain why store-bought strawberries were getting blander. Basically, strawberries have been bred over the past few decades to enhance desirable traits, including size, yield, color, and hardiness. Flavor just so happened to be less of a priority when it came to these breeding programs, which is probably why overall sweetness ended up becoming such a huge difference between store-bought strawberries and wild ones.

Commerce plays a role, too. Store-bought strawberries often have to travel long distances to make it to local groceries, so some experts recommend helping them last longer by harvesting them while they still have white tips, before they're fully ripe. The problem with this is the idea that strawberries continue to ripen after harvesting is one of the biggest false facts about strawberries out there. While a 1998 study in Acta Horticulturae (via Research Gate) found strawberries can sometimes get redder after picking, they also stop ripening, which means underripe strawberries don't get any sweeter.

It all boils down to capitalism. Strawberry growers earn a living by selling fruit, so they need to prioritize the qualities that get people to buy. A 2017 study published in Agribusiness found that people who bought strawberries could be classified into three groups based on their preferences for the fruit's traits. The largest group, which comprised more than 65% of participants, preferred buying strawberries with brighter colors, larger sizes, firmer textures, and more intense flavors. Another group specifically prioritized size, external color, and texture over flavor and internal color.

Why do size, external color, and texture matter so much? Because these are the three qualities we can examine without even opening the package. A 2024 study in the peer-reviewed journal Foods (via MDPI) found that a strawberry's appearance played the biggest role in getting people to buy them. We equate a strawberry's freshness and flavor with how big it is, how red it is, and how firm it appears. Since we usually can't taste the strawberries before buying them, their looks are all we have to go on.

During a 2020 online workshop with the Snohomish County Fruit Society, Marvin Pritts explained that strawberry growers in California and Florida decided to prioritize size and yield when it came to their fruits because that's what the market wanted; flavor was secondary to appearance and availability. As of 2021, the USDA reported that 98% of all strawberries grown in the U.S. come from California and Florida, so the odds of you buying these looks-over-taste strawberries are pretty high.

Since most commercial strawberries were bred for their appearance, you have to rely on other qualities to find the sweetest. One thing you can do is check the packaging to see if they're fungicide- and pesticide-free. Not only did a 2023 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (via ACS Publications) find that two common fungicides reduce the sugar content of strawberries, but a separate 2019 study in Scientific Reports (via Nature) showed that strawberries grew sweeter after researchers simulated insect damage on their leaves. Turns out, strawberries' defense mechanisms against pests also led to increased sugar production.

You can also try to smell the strawberries. According to a 1989 study in Chemical Senses (via Apa PsycNet), scientists found that a stronger strawberry aroma made taste testers perceive a simulated strawberry solution as sweeter. You can essentially trick your brain into thinking your strawberries have more sugar in them by getting the most fragrant ones.

Lastly, you can look for strawberries grown outside California and Florida. New Jersey is a good place to start; in 2022, researchers at Rutgers University unveiled the Rutgers D'Light, a special breed of strawberry that took 15 years to develop. It was bred to have the ideal balance of sweetness, acidity, and fragrance that make for a flavorful strawberry. If you're willing to drop $20 on an eight-pack, you can also try Oishii's Omakase strawberries; these luxury strawberries are grown under highly controlled conditions to boost their flavor, and the high-tech farm they're from happens to be in New Jersey, too.