Is Dragon Fruit Sweet? We Compare The Varieties

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Is Dragon Fruit Sweet
Is Dragon Fruit Sweet?

This question comes up a number of times as many people like myself are curious about this exotic fruit which is relatively new on the market in many countries, especially western countries.

Dragon fruit is sweet. The yellow skin dragon fruit, often called yellow dragon or Hylocereus megalanthus is the sweetest variety. Many other varieties can have a very mild to bland flavour such as the Vietnamese Giant. The sweetest red-skinned variety is the Sugar Dragon.

We have already covered much of the sweetness factors in our article: What Does Dragon Fruit Taste Like? But we will expand upon and cover some different questions in this article, so please keep on reading.

Sugar Dragon and Yellow Dragon
Sugar Dragon and Yellow Dragon are the Sweetest Dragon Fruits

In this article we will cover the questions:

  • Which Dragon Fruit Is Sweeter?
  • Is Yellow Dragon Fruit Sweet?
  • Is Red Dragon Fruit Sweet?
  • Is Pink Dragon Fruit Sweet?
  • Is White Dragon Fruit Sweet?

Some of the varieties of dragon fruit are harder to acquire, especially if you live in a region or country where they are not grown. It is always best, if you can, to try your own taste test on a few different varieties to get an idea of which are sweeter and which are mild.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to try the yellow-skinned white flesh dragon fruit, the red-skinned red flesh dragon fruit and the red skin white flesh dragon fruit. So here is my own personal take on the sweetness of all of these varieties, along with some research to confirm my findings.

Which Dragon Fruit Is Sweeter?

The yellow-skinned variety of Dragon Fruit is sweeter. The sweetest yellow-skinned variety is called Yellow Dragon or Yellow Pitahaya. It is considered the sweetest of all the different varieties of Dragon fruit known.

The Yellow Dragon is smaller in size than the red-skinned variety and is a little more difficult to harvest. This is due to the sharp thorns that are produced on its skin, which loosen as it ripens, and can be carefully brushed off with a dust brush. However, gloves are still advised as getting one of these thorns stuck in your fingers or hands is an unpleasant experience.

Is Yellow Dragon Fruit Sweet?

 Yellow Dragon Fruit
Yellow Dragon Fruit

The Yellow Dragon fruit is sweet and considered the sweetest of all of the varieties of dragon fruit, including the red-skinned varieties. The yellow dragon fruit tends to be white-fleshed and tend to originate in Ecuador & Colombia.

I was fortunate enough to be able to pick one fresh from a dragon fruit plantation that was growing this variety. The flesh was covered in thorns, so you had to be very careful not to get pricked. Being smaller, there was not a lot of flesh on the inside, but enough to satisfy my taste buds. The flesh was white and black seeds were scattered throughout. The taste was very sweet and juicy with a texture much like that of kiwi fruit.

If you get the opportunity to try this particular variety of dragon fruit then I would recommend you go ahead and give it a go. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Which Dragon Fruit Is Sweet?

We covered this in a previous post when we considered the Brix scores of various variety of dragon fruits. The Brix score is measuring the sweetness of a solution or in this case of Dragon Fruit. The Brix score or value can range from 1 to 100. A Brix score of 1 means that 1 gram of sucrose is present in 100 grams of solution. The higher the score the sweeter the fruit.

You can see the full writeup and Brix scores of each variety of Dragon fruit in our article: What Does Dragon Fruit Taste Like?

For a condensed summary check out our table below for the sweetest varieties of yellow and red dragon fruit.

NameSkin ColorFlesh ColorFlavor
ColombianaYellowWhiteVery Sweet
Yellow DragonYellowWhiteVery Sweet with Good Flavor
Sugar DragonRedRedVery Sweet with Excellent Flavor
DelightBright PinkWhiteSweet
MakisupaPinkDark PinkSweet
Lake AtitlanBright PinkWhiteSweet

Is Red Dragon Fruit Sweet?

Red Dragon Fruit
Red Dragon Fruit

Red dragon fruit is sweet but not as sweet as the Yellow Dragon fruit varieties. The red dragon fruit, Hylocereus Undatus is considered the least sweet of all the sweet pitahayas. Its appearance is red-skinned with white flesh. Its origins are from Malaysia other Asian countries.

I have tried the red flesh variety and the particular dragon fruit I tasted was a mildly sweet flavour. The flesh was not a deep red such as the sugar dragon variety, but rather a lighter red. This may have been the reason for its mildly sweet taste.

If you a thinking about planting a Dragon Fruit and happen to have a fire hydrant on your property, you might want to check out this article: How Close Can You Plant a Tree To a Fire Hydrant? It will show you the legal distances and a few pointers to help you along the way.

Is Pink Dragon Fruit Sweet?

Pink dragon fruit is not as sweet as the red dragon fruit. This is the case with the red skin variety of dragon fruit. When we consider the flesh of the red-skinned variety, the darker the flesh the sweeter the flavour.

So red skin dragon fruit with white flesh is the least sweet. However, this is not the case with the yellow skin dragon fruit. The white flesh of the yellow skin dragon fruit is very sweet.

Is White Dragon Fruit Sweet?

Depends on the variety and skin colour. When considering the white dragon fruit, we are looking at the flesh colour.

White dragon fruit is sweet if the dragon fruit skin is yellow and mild if the dragon fruit skin is red.

I was able to try the pink skin dragon fruit with white flesh from Vietnam and can say that it is not very sweet. It is not bland totally, just not very sweet, making it very suitable for adding to a banana smoothie with coconut water. The creamy texture makes it ideal for smoothies and the banana and coconut water add a little more sweetness.

So, in conclusion, the Yellow Dragon Fruit is the sweetest but smallest of the varieties of Dragon Fruit and the sweetest red-skinned dragon fruit would be the Sugar Dragon which has red flesh.

Juan & Raquel

We are Juan & Raquel, the guys behind Fruit Information. We've been interested in fruit over the last few decades and have been busy with improving our knowledge of the different varieties. I, Juan, have been almost a fruitarian for over a decade and almost solely living on fruits as my main dietary intake. My wife Raquel has worked on a fruit farm and also worked in a nursery and seedlings shop. She is a very experienced and knowledgeable farmer. We have recently undertaken a new Dragon Fruit farm with friends.

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