Move over bananas, there’s a new sheriff in town

For decades, bananas were the most popular fruit in the United States. It makes sense because they are easy to transport, store relatively well, and most kids like them. However, a new fruit now reigns supreme – at least in Google searches. A new report by Gourmet Gift Baskets ranks mangos as the number one searched-for fruit in the US.

Setting aside the limitations of using this method to determine popularity, mangos seem to be on the mind of Americans, because only ten of the fifty states had a different fruit top the rankings. Overall, the contest wasn’t even close, as mangos had nearly twice as many searches as the next most popular fruit (bananas, followed by oranges).

It seems a little ironic that the top two fruits are ones that do not grow anywhere in the continental US, especially as increased tariffs are being applied to countries that grow a large percentage of the produce that Americans eat. Perhaps apples will rise back up in the rankings if tropical fruits are priced out of reach.

The rankings of fruit in the EYB Library are not the same as those in the survey. There are factors that may explain these differences, such as author preference and the fact that the Library contains books from around the world. There are over 31,000 recipes that contain bananas versus just shy of 20,000 recipes that feature mangos. The clear winner in this contest is oranges, with more than 130,000 recipes, apples, with more than 77,000 recipes in the Library. Although there are many more recipes with lemons (319,000+) and limes (169,000+), I would wager that the majority of those recipes do not feature those citrus fruits as a main component, but use them more like a spice. Perhaps the same could be said for oranges, which would leave apples in the top spot.