Eat My Globe

Green Gold: The History of the Avocado

Simon Majumdar (“SM”):

Hey April.

April Simpson (“AS”): 

Yeah, Simon.

SM: 

What did the magician say to the avocado?

AS: 

I don’t know Simon. What did the magician say to the avocado?

SM: 

Avocadabra!

[Laughter]

Oh, that’s a great one. I love that.

AS:

Oh.

SM:

That one is from my wife Sybil. Anyway.

INTRO MUSIC

Hi everyone.

My name is Simon Majumdar and welcome to Eat My Globe, a podcast about things you didn’t know you didn’t know about food.

And on today’s episode, we are going to be looking at the history of the avocado from ancient times up to the present, where we will look at the Hass avocado, guacamole, and avocado toast that’s now something close to sacred.

As ever though, let’s begin looking at the name, “avocado,” and what it means.

Our old friend, Merriam-Webster, says that the avocado is

Quote

“A pulpy green- to purple-skinned nutty-flavored fruit of any of various tropical American trees (genus Persea especially P. americana) of the laurel family.”

End quote.

Whereas Encyclopedia Britanica says

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“Avocado fruits have greenish or yellowish flesh with a buttery consistency and a rich nutty flavour.”

End quote.

It should be noted here though that avocados, as said above, is a fruit and a berry.

Its name, “avocado,” comes from the Spanish word, “aguacate.” Spanish conquistador and historian,

Pedro de Cieza de León, first used the word in his writings in 1550. He wrote about aguacate plants in Peru, Panama, Ecuador and Columbia.

Francisco Cervantes Salazar, another Spanish historian, first wrote in 1554 that aguacate grew in Mexico.

According to an article in the South African Avocado Growers’ Association Yearbook, in 1589, an English person called Hawkes first referred to the avocado in a published writing referring to it as “alvacata,” which is derived from the Spanish word, “aguacate.” So, we’ve got avocados deriving from the Spanish word aguacate. How did the Spanish get that word?

It goes back to the Aztec times – from the 14^th to the 15^th century. The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language and they called avocado, “ahuacatl,” which meant “testicle.” Apparently, the Aztecs thought that the avocado’s shape reminded them of this body part.

Another theory is the Aztecs came up with the avocado’s Nahuatl name supposedly due to its aphrodisiacal qualities. Hmmm.

In Northern America and Britain, it was known as the “Alligator Pear.” It is believed that, in 1696, Baronet Sir Hans Sloane first wrote the name of this fruit in an English publication

Quote

“The Avocado or Alligator Pear-Tree.”

End quote.

Fun fact. Sloane was an Irish Physicist whose collection of

Quote

“Books, manuscripts, and curiosities formed the basis of the British Museum.”

End quote.

Back to our story. It was originally called “alligator pear” because it was shaped like a pear and had a bumpy green-ish skin like an alligator. There you go.

It wasn’t until 1915 that the California avocado farmers decided to switch to the other name Sloane had used for the fruit: the avocado. The name, “alligator pear,” was apparently bad for business.

In 1927, the farmers even pled,

Quote

“That the avocado, an exalted member of the laurel family, should be called an alligator pear is beyond all understanding . . . The avocado, as a matter of fact, bears no resemblance to an alligator, or a pair of alligators, or whatever the alligator mistakes for a pear.”

End quote.

But that is why we now call it avocado.

Good riddance to the alligator pear, and we raise an avocado TOAST, this is one from my wife as well, to the avocado.

Now, let’s go into its history.

Avocados have been around for at least 400,000 years. According to the authors of the article called “The Avocado (Persea Mericana, Lauraceae) Crop in Mesoamerica: 10,000 Years of History,” which was published in the Harvard Papers in Botany, it is believed that the ancestor of the avocado originated in present day Africa when Africa was part of the ancient supercontinent called Gondwana. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Gondwana included modern day Africa, South America, the Arabian Peninsula, the now-island nation of Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. Huge place.

Anyway, huge animals, such as large mammoths and giant ground sloths, would eat the avocado’s ancestor and then poop them out thus moving the seeds from one place to another. These fruits ended up in an ancient landmass called Laurasia, which includes present day North America, Europe, and Asia. The avocado’s ancestors would eventually be brought to what was Mesoamerica, where, around 16,000 to 8,000 BCE, it would evolve to the avocado.

But back to these large animals. BBC’s Guy Kelly says that the animals

Quote

“Would chomp them down at will, but all those creatures went extinct around 13,000 years ago, leaving nothing large enough to do the same job today.”

End quote.

This would lead to what Guy Kelly calls an “evolutionary anachronism” meaning that we don’t know how they survived without these large creatures moving them around.

One of the oldest avocado pits with human use was discovered in human settlements in Coxcatlan in the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico. These were dated to about 10,000 years ago.

Also, a team of anthropologists found pits to be around the same age in the El Gigante Rockshelter in Honduras. Knowridge.com says,

Quote

“According to Dr. Thakar [one of the anthropologists], early humans took over the role once played by giant animals like sloths and mammoths, which originally helped spread avocado seeds.”

End quote.

And another anthropologist, Dr. Doug Kennett, told The New York Times that,

Quote

“These humans. . . began cultivating the fruit [and thus], ‘saving avocados.’”

End quote.

Knowridge further says,

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“By around 7,500 years ago, indigenous farmers had already made significant improvements to the avocado, and by 2,000 years ago, fully domesticated varieties were being grown.”

End quote.

The Mesoamerican people of ancient Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and Central and South Mexico, which included Olmec, Mayan and then later the Aztec peoples, used avocados not just in the kitchen.  They used avocados for trade, as well as for medicinal, cultural and sacred use. During the Mayan times, as authors Jennifer Mathews and Scott Fedick put it

Quote

“avocados were portrayed on Maya king’s tombs, served as the municipal symbol of ancient Mesoamerican cities, as a month in the Maya calendar. . . [and] the Aztecs touted the plants curative and aphrodisiac properties.”

End quote.

Once the Conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they were soon to see the amazing qualities of the avocado. One cartographer, Martin Fernandez de Enciso, wrote about them in his notes. He described them as

Quote

“look[ing] like an orange, and when it is ready for eating it turns yellowish; that which it contains is like butter and is of marvelous flavor, so good and pleasing to the palate that it is a marvelous thing.”

End quote.

I think I feel that way about avocados.

Later, in 1672, author W. Hughes wrote about the avocado in his work, “The American Physitian.” He says

Quote

“the Fruit is of the fashion of a Fig, but very smooth on the outside, and as big in bulk as a Slipper-Pear; of a brown colour, having a stone in the middle as big as an Apricock, but round, hard and smooth; the outer paring or rinde is, as it were, a kind of a shell, almost like an Acorn-shell, but not altogether so tough; yet the middle substance (I mean between the stone and the paring, or outer crusty rinde) is very soft and tender, almost as soft as the pulp of a Pippin not over-roasted.” 

End quote.

The US Consul in Campeche, Mexico, Henry Perrine, is credited with bringing the avocados to Florida in 1833, and the Nicaraguans are credited with bringing them to California in 1856.  However, by the 1920s, avocados were still considered a luxury item. And, in fact, it was described by an advertisement as being

Quote

“The Aristocrat of Salad Fruit.”

End quote.

Eating avocado was a case of the HASS AVOCADOs and the HASS AVOCADO NOTs.

Bad joke, good segue.

Writer Emelyn Rude says the exclusive nature of avocados changed in the 1920s when a gentleman named Rudolph began to plant an avocado seed in his back garden.

This gentleman, Rudolph Gustav Hass, was a former postal worker in California. He was a budding farmer. He brought a few seedlings from A.R. Rideout of Whittier, California. And, in 1926, he began to grow them in his property in La Habra Heights. It is believed that these seeds may have come from Guatemala. Haas planted the seeds in apple boxes filled with sawdust before transplanting them to soil. Hass tried to graft them but the trees rejected the Fuerte avocado variety so he just left them unattended. Later, his children noticed that these unattended trees bore fruit with a bumpy purple-ish skin, which were different from the smooth green skin of the Fuerte. Apparently, his children also liked the taste of the fruit with the bumpy skin. These trees had a different taste to the then-commercially available avocados, produced more fruits, and had fruits that were sturdier when shipped. In 1935, Hass patented his eponymous avocados.

Hass went into partnership with a grower called H.H. Brokaw of Whittier, California who planted and promoted this new variety.

Rudolph Hass’ patent unfortunately only lasted 17-years due to how patent laws worked at the time, and his family were unable to renew the patent because there were no new improvements to the Hass avocado variety. When Rudolph died in 1952, he only made around $4,000 from the Hass avocado over the life of the patent.

Despite Rudolph Hass not making a lot of money from his avocado, the Hass variety of avocados was soon the most popular in the country and the world. According to Elliot Carter of Atlas Obscura,

Quote

“amazingly, every single Hass can trace its roots to a mother tree that was born in Southern California during the Great Depression.”

End quote.

Mind you, in some countries, such as Great Britain, we found the avocado a strange fruit when it first made an appearance. In 1968, Marks & Spencer apparently introduced avocados, which they called “Avocado Pears,” to the country. One buyer decided to have her Avocado Pear with custard, which caused much consternation. So, Marks & Sparks, as we call them in England, had to sell them with a leaflet to explain what this strange fruit was. Because otherwise, they would’ve been stuck between A GUAC AND A HARD PLACE, get it?

According to the Agricultural Resource Center, California produces the majority of avocados in the US, and Florida comes in a distant second. Back in 2021, the US grew about 149,600 tons of avocados that was worth $341.9 million.

These numbers might seem like a fair amount of avocados. And it is. But, other countries produce significant amounts.

To put it plainly, the US does not come in the top ten of avocado producers. Although the US is not necessarily at the bottom of THE PIT.

[Laughter]

In 2024, Mexico was the leader in the world producing over 2.7 billion tons. Colombia was number two producing 1.27 billion tons. The US during the same year? She produced 178,780 tons of avocados. A lot less.

Let’s have a look at three of the ingredients and the dishes that really began to make avocados what they are today.

Let’s first look at avocado oil.

Back when the Spanish colonizers arrived in the Americas, they have already seen indigenous peoples using avocado oil. Friar Bernabé de Cobo wrote in his book, “Historia de Nuevo Mundo,” or History of the World in English, which he published in 1653, that, in Yucatan, avocado

Quote

“when pressed it yields an oil like that of the almond.”

End quote.

So, as you can see, avocado oil is not new.

But recently, as the authors in Molecules scientific journal explain

Quote

“Avocado oil has sparked a growing interest in human nutrition, food industry, and cosmetics.”

End quote.

And, as the Cleveland Clinic says that not only is avocado oil good for cooking – because of its high smoke point so food won’t burn quickly – but it also has good fats, antioxidants, Vitamin E, and more that help lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

In 2018, avocado oil had a global market value of $430.8 million, and it is expected to grow further in 2026 to $646 million. I know that Sybil and I will certainly be adding to that by a bottle or two.

Now, let’s talk about avocado toast.

A Sydney, Australia based restauranteur called Bill Granger, who is a nice man, has been christened as the “Godfather” of avocado toast. His restaurants were a terrific place to have breakfast in. Trust me. He opened his first place, “bills,” in the Darlinghurst area of Sydney in 1993 when he was just 24 years old. I went to see this very “Australian” style of breakfast – it’s about 2007. My breakfast at bills GUACED MY WORLD.

Joking aside, Granger’s menu offerings did include avocado on toast. Granger once described his avocado on toast to the Australian Financial Review:

Quote

“Just crush it on the sourdough toast yourself, and always serve with citrus - lemon or lime - and good sea salt, and coriander for freshness.”

End quote.

He also said about his avocado on toast,

Quote

“I wanted to make it beautiful as a dish, rather than just putting ingredients together. Visuals are so important, we definitely eat with our eyes.”

End quote.

To be fair, although he was called the “godfather” of avocado toast, Bill Granger always denied this status.

Indeed, on April the 12th, 1960, The New York Times wrote

Quote

“For Avocado Lovers: Avocado pear enthusiasts, who cannot seem to have enough of this fruit at lunch and dinner, might try it at breakfast time too. Peel the avocado. Then slice it on hot buttered toast and sprinkle liberally with salt.”

End quote.

Oh, I want to try that now.

And, Bon Appétit Magazine unearthed a newspaper article from a small town in the San Garbiel Valley in Southern California from December the 10th, 1920 that pre-dated Granger’s avocado toast. In the 1920 article, writer Martin Fesler shared his recipe for a dish he called “Avocado on Toast.” Fesler instructs

Quote

“Remove the skin and mash with a fork. Spread thickly on a small square of hot toast. Add a little salt and pepper. This is one of the nicest ways of serving avocado.”

End quote.

And it is most likely that people have been eating avocado on toast well before 1920. So, while Granger may not have invented avocado toast, writer Nikita Ephanov says

Quote

“That Granger is owed credit for its popularity.”

End quote.

To finish, why don’t we look at the Mexican dish: Guacamole.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, guacamole means

Quote

“pureed or mashed avocado that is typically mixed with lime juice, cilantro, tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, and salt and that is usually served as a dip, spread, or topping.”

End quote.

It is taken from the Nahuatl word “ahuacamolli,” which means “avocado sauce.” Now, while we don’t know exactly how far back guacamole has been consumed, we know that the Aztecs have been eating it as far back as the 14^th century, and that the Spanish Conquistadors encountered them in Mexico in the 1500s.

The first English language recipe of what could have been guacamole was in a 1697 book by William Dampier called, “A New Voyage Around the World.” In addition to being an author, Dampier was also a pirate. While visiting the island of Chepelio in Panama, Dampier refers to the “Avogato Pear-tree” and describes the fruit as

Quote

“This Fruit hath no taste of it self, and therefore, ‘tis usually mixt with Sugar and Lime-juice, and beaten together in a Plate; and this is an excellent Dish.”

End quote.

How did this dish from Mexico become one of the most popular accompaniments in the United States and possibly even the world?

Sunset Magazine first put guacamole in its pages in November 1936 as an appetizer. By May 1970, Sunset Magazine put guacamole on its cover and called it

Quote

“Sauce of the Americas.”

End quote.

But according to Saveur Magazine, guacamole did not reach a level of popularity until about the mid-1990s. Writer Emily Saladino argues that the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA between the US, Canada, and Mexico allowed for avocados to be shipped anytime from Mexico to the US. The availability of avocados then made guacamole very popular.

It also helped that guacamole became the official Super Bowl food after the signing of NAFTA. By 2003, Super Bowl party goers would consume a lot of guacamole by mashing nearly 40 million pounds of avocados. This is part of a concerted effort from trade groups to make sure that people ate avocados on Super Bowl Sunday as this time period was around the same time as the start of the avocado harvesting season in California. In the 2001-2002 National Football League season alone, California avocado growers sold 400 million pounds of the fruit resulting in $358 million in sales. Wow. But because the California harvesting season does not really get into the full swing until the after Super Bowl Sunday, by 2008, most of those avocados came from Mexico.

Despite all the guacamole consumption on Super Bowl Sunday, avocado trade groups are now setting their sights on growing avocado consumption during the College Football Playoff season.

And these days, guacamole has its own national day – in case you’re curious, September the 16th is National Guacamole Day, which should not be confused with July 31^st, which is National Avocado Day. So, there you go.

In 2023, the worldwide production of avocado reached 10.47 million metric tons. Mexico produced the most at 2.9 million metric tons.

Anyway. While Mexico produced the most, the USA consumed the most at 3 billion pounds. Wow.

Ok enough.

As Statista describes this avocado consumption,

Quote

“It is no secret that avocado has become a global sensation in recent years.”

End quote.

And that is why it’s no wonder that avocado is also known as “Green Gold.”

Which is probably the best way to end this episode. Instead, I shall go and use a Hass avocado, to produce a Bill Granger or Martin Fesler “avocado toast” and, even though I don’t watch the Super Bowl, maybe I can switch it on when the commercials are on.

See you next week folks.

OUTRO MUSIC

SM:

Make sure to check out the website associated with this podcast at www.EatMyGlobe.com where we’ll be posting the transcripts from each episode, along with all the references and resources we used putting the episodes together, in case you want to delve deeper into each subject. There is also a contact button, so please do let us know if there are any subjects that you would like us to cover.

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Thank you and goodbye from me, Simon Majumdar, we’ll speak to you soon on the next episode of EAT MY GLOBE: Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Food.

CREDITS

The EAT MY GLOBE Podcast is a production of “It’s Not Much But It’s Ours” and “Producer Girl Productions.” We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help both with the editing of the transcripts and her essential help with the research.