It's Pineapple Season: Here's How Experts Choose The Sweetest, Juiciest Fruit At The Store

When summer is on the horizon, you may start envisioning a piña colada in your future. If our assumption is correct, you should know how to tell if a pineapple is ripe. Luckily, we're privy to a few pieces of expert advice for choosing the best pineapple at the supermarket or farmers' market.

When Mashed asked the pros their tricks and tips for finding the freshest produce, they suggested using your senses. Whole Foods produce inspector Josiah Leet advised looking at the pineapple first, explaining, "The fruit or vegetable has a way of telling you how fresh it actually is." A ripe pineapple is yellow all over. Green signals it's underripe, while dark orange means it's overripe. "Pineapples will be firm but with a subtle color change from green to gold," Leet adds. The perfect pineapple will have a slight give when squeezed.

Finally, give the pineapple a whiff. "You should be able to hold [it] up to your nose and smell the fruit; that means it's at its peak," Chef Milena Pagan told us. If the bottom of the pineapple smells vibrant, sweet, and tropical, add it to your cart. If there's a sour or fermented odor, it's past its prime. For the best options, Pagan suggests a store that's known for its fruit. "If there's a produce specialty store nearby, I always go there first, but for all purposes I go to Market Basket ... Whole Foods also takes a lot of care with sorting its produce."

You can find just about any produce at a U.S. grocery store year-round, thanks to importation. In America, pineapple season is technically from April to June, so that's when you'll likely find the tastiest pineapples at your supermarket. 

At one time, pineapples were only found in the Caribbean and South America, but they can now be grown basically anywhere, either indoors or outdoors, despite their need for a tropical climate. To shop for ripe domestic pineapple, look for fruit grown in Hawaii or Florida. Maui Gold and Kaua'i Sugarloaf varieties are some solid options. If you can't find American-grown pineapple at a specialty fruit store or market, you may need to order it directly from the farm. You can also order whole fruit from the Dole plantation in Oahu.

Once you have peak-scrumptious fruit, there are dozens of sweet and savory pineapple recipes that'll show it off. To let the fruit flavor shine, consider simple dishes with basic ingredients, like grilled pineapple with whipped cream. For mains, pineapple is a natural complement to pork (and it's rich in the enzyme bromelain, which tenderizes the protein), so we recommend glazed pineapple ham and porky-stuffed grilled whole pineapple. Of course, you can also use the fruit in summery pineapple cocktails, like a piña colada, blue Hawaiian, and rum punch.