Day Five of Our Fuerte Ripening Test: The Paper Bag Pulls Ahead

Five days into our ripening test, there is a clear leader. The Fuerte in the paper bag is noticeably softer than the one on the counter — about two days ahead — and the one in the fridge has hardly changed at all.

Quick recap: we took three of our own Fuerte avocados and put one on the kitchen counter at room temperature, one in a paper bag and one in the refrigerator. The aim is simple: see which method speeds ripening up and which one holds it back.

Why skip straight to day five?

We checked on day two, and not much was happening in any of them. Rather than film three hard avocados again, we waited a few extra days for the differences to show.

The counter: a little give

The countertop Fuerte now has a little give when pressed. It is hard to see on video, but you can feel it. Knowing Fuertes, and how big this particular one is, we would give it two or three more days. They are usually ready somewhere between seven and ten days after picking.

It has also been quite warm here, and warmth tends to speed ripening along. A cooler kitchen would likely stretch that timeline.

The paper bag: clearly ahead

The one in the bag is definitely softer than the counter avocado. We would guess it will be ready by tomorrow, making it a six- or seven-day avocado. The usual explanation is that avocados give off ethylene, a natural ripening gas, and a paper bag holds it around the fruit instead of letting it drift off.

In fairness, not every bag test goes to plan. In a separate test with a banana in the bag, our result came out the other way round. Small home experiments are like that, which is why we keep running them.

The fridge: not even close

The refrigerated Fuerte is not ripe at all. That is the useful finding here. The fridge is not really a ripening method, it is a pause button. If you want to hold an avocado back for later in the week, put it in the fridge. The UC grower handbook does warn that storing avocados below about 41°F can cause chilling injury, and most home fridges run colder than that, so treat it as a pause of days rather than weeks.

There is more on using all three methods on purpose, and on ripening a whole box without everything going soft on the same day, in our guide to how to ripen avocados.

What comes next

We will check again in about three days, then cut all three open and eat them to see how they compare inside, not just on the squeeze test.

If you have only ever eaten Hass, Fuerte is worth a try: thin green skin, and a flavor a lot of growers quietly prefer, as we explain in Hass vs Fuerte. And if you are wondering how this plays out with fruit that has traveled, see how long shipped avocados last.

This is part two of the series. If you missed how we set it up, start with part one, the setup; the final verdict is in part three, the day-eight results.

Want to run your own test? The 4lb Fuerte box arrives firm, which is exactly where an experiment should start. When Fuerte season is over, the page has a waitlist and we will email you when fruit is back.

This post is part of our guide to choosing, ripening and using avocados.