33 Fruits That Start With C
If you’re trying to fill your day with more fruits, but are tired of choosing the same options from the grocery store every week, it may be time to experiment with some more exotic options.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to 33 fruits that start with C, so you can keep your eye open for new flavor adventures the next time you go shopping.
33 Fruits That Start With The Letter C
1. Cabeluda
The Brazilian cabeluda is a large, yellow fruit with a lot of seeds but not a lot of pulpy flesh. What the cabeluda fruit lacks in pulp is made up for in potent sweet flavor with just a hint of sourness. Some have compared the flavor of cabeluda to a combination of grapes and coconut.
2. Cacao
Cacao seeds are where chocolate and baking cacao comes from, but did you know that cacao also has edible juicy, fruity pulp?
The flesh of a cacao fruit surrounds the seed and has a sweet, tropical flavor and scent that is more like a sweet citrus than chocolate. You can also eat the cacao seeds fresh from the fruit, but the flavor of pure, unsweetened, bitter chocolate can be overwhelming.
3. Canary Melon
Also known as winter melon, the canary melon is large and long with a vibrant yellow, waxy rind. The edible fruit is pale green and quite sweet with a slight tang.
Canary melons are enjoyed raw and fresh, served in slices or balls. They make a great addition to fruit salads, smoothies, and desserts.
4. Cannibal’s Tomatoes
Several dark tales surround the naming of Cannibal’s tomatoes.
However, the most accepted version is that herbivorous caterpillars and certain other insects who live on one of these plants will become cannibalistic to defend their territory.
The small, extremely bitter fruits are actually eggplants, despite their name, and look a little like a tiny, red pumpkin.
5. Capers
Capers are small flower buds, harvested from their bush young, before flowering. They’re most commonly pickled in brine or dried.
Capers have a tangy flavor like lemons and olives dusted with salt. Capers can be added to almost any savory dish, though they’re particularly popular when paired with fish or chicken piccata, adding a boost of flavor and texture.
6. Cardon Fruit
Cardon fruit comes from the tops of huge cactuses in hot, dry deserts. The flower that precedes the fruit gives off a strong smell of melons that are going bad.
When ripe, cardon fruits are round and have a juicy pulp that can range in color from bright red to an almost translucent white. While the cardon fruit is mainly a staple for wildlife, humans can also enjoy the juicy desert fruit.
7. Carob
Carob looks like a large, dark brown pea pod. Inside is a sweet pulp that surrounds its seeds. You can eat carobs whole, pods and all, either dried or fresh.
Carob is an excellent caffeine-free, naturally sweet alternative to chocolate and can be used as a substitute for chocolate in any recipe.
8. Cassabanana
Cassabanana is a large, round, hard melon that can vary in color from orange, red, purple to all black.
When the cassabanana is harvested before it is ripe, it is seasoned and cooked like a vegetable. When harvested ripe, cassabananas can be enjoyed fresh, sliced as a refreshingly sweet, melon snack. They’re also often for making preserves and jams.
9. Champedak
Champedak fruits are very unique and generally considered an acquired taste, at best. The flavor is hard to describe, being a combination of sweet and savory, tropical and oniony, all at the same time.
The pungent scent is sickeningly sweet, like overripe, rotting fruit. Champedak fruit can be eaten raw when ripe, but its most popular use is in pudding.
10. Chico Mamei
The round chico mamei fruit, also called Mamay Sapote, has a thick brown skin when it is ripe. The dense orange-red flesh is sweet and fragrant, similar in flavor to a creamy sweet potato. The fruit is eaten fresh as a sweet snack while the seeds are used in perfume, makeup, and soaps.
11. Chupa-chupa
Native to the Amazon, chupa-chupas are round, brown, dusty-looking, and equipped with a little hat that provides access to the inner fruit. Each fruit has around 6 inedible stone seeds that the juicy, orange, stringy, fibrous flesh is attached to.
Chupa-chupa fruits are described as multi-flavor, like having a mango, papaya, melon, and strawberry fruit salad.
12. Citron
Citrons look like very large, bright yellow, bumpy, and dimply lemons. They have a strong lemon flavor but aren’t nearly as juicy as lemons. Citrons also have a much thicker, white pith.
With some effort, citrons can be juiced but are generally candied and served as a sweet and sour garnish treat.
13. Coontie Fruit
Coontie fruits grow on stalky palm trees that never flowers, but instead grows brown cones. When ripe, the coontie cones open up and expose bright orange or vibrant red individual fruits that encase the plant’s seeds.
As enticing as these fruits look, they are extremely toxic to animals and humans, even touching them could cause a reaction.
14. Coyo Fruit
At first glance, the coyo fruit looks remarkably like avocado, with green to brown, bumpy, leathery skin. The inside of a coyo fruit looks like that of avocado as well, but with a much larger seed that takes up more than half of the fruit.
Coyo fruit also tastes like avocado with a hint of coconut. Unlike an avocado, the flesh, though creamy, is gritty and less desirable.
15. Crane Melon
Crane melons have a yellow-green rind that is peppered in dark green freckles, adding orange spots when fully ripe.
The edible flesh is a light orange color and has a creamy texture. Extremely juicy with a sweet flavor that is similar to a mild cantaloupe, crane melons are best enjoyed ripe, raw, and fresh.
16. Calamansi
Calamansi is a citrus fruit that is round and quite small, about half the size of a lime. These fruits are usually harvested green and unripe, but when they’re fully mature, they look more like little mandarin oranges.
The inside has golden-orange individual wedges, with a strong flavor that is a mix between a sour lemon and a sweet orange. Calamansi is generally used to flavor savory dishes or made into a drink similar to lemonade.
17. Camu Camu Berry
Camu Camu berries grow naturally in the Amazon rainforest. The berries start green and ripen into a brilliant red.
Camu camu berries can be eaten raw in their natural state, but they are very bitter and sour. The berries are considered a superfood and are most commonly consumed in powder or pill form.
18. Canistel
Canistel fruits are also known as egg fruits. They are round and have thin yellow skin with a bright yellow inner flesh. Canistel has a texture of the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, and the flavor of egg, with a hint of sweetness.
Canistel can be eaten fresh but is usually used in milkshakes, custards, and other desserts.
19. Cape Gooseberry
Cape gooseberries look like tiny orange tomatoes housed in a pretty paper cage, or cape.
Cape gooseberries have a juicy orange pulp that is sweet and mildly acidic. The flavor is a complex blend of berries, tropical fruits, and tomatoes.
These little berries are great to eat fresh, as a pretty garnish to salads, or as a substitute for any berry in baking recipes.
20. Capulin Cherry
Capulin cherries start green and ripen into a deep maroon, almost black color. They are similar to wild cherries with a light green juicy pulp that is sweet with a sour kick.
Capulin cherries are enjoyed fresh from the tree or market. This versatile berry can be used in a variety of dishes from a savory main course to desserts.
21. Cashew Apples
Cashew apples look like a pear and bell pepper hybrid wearing a bean-shaped top hat.
When ripe, cashew fruits are orange or red, or both. The flesh of the cashew apple is juicy, soft, and spongy, but also stringy and fibrous. The flavor is quite astringent, but also sweet and tropical.
The flesh of the cashew apple can be eaten raw or cooked into juices and jams. The bean-shaped hat that contains the cashew nut, however, is harmful to touch and can severely irritate skin and cause illness.
22. Cedar Bay Cherry
Cedar Bay cherries are small and round with a shiny, vibrant orange-red color. These cherries are soft and juicy and taste like a berry and grape mix.
Cedar Bay cherries can be eaten fresh as a sweet and refreshing snack, but the seeds are inedible and poisonous. The cherries can also be juiced or made into jam or other preserves.
23. Ceylon Gooseberry
Ceylon gooseberries are a small round purple-black fruit with soft and velvety skin that is usually peeled before eating.
They have blood-red flesh when ripe and an extraordinarily strong bitter, sour flavor similar to an extra sour cherry with a hint of apricot. Ceylon gooseberries are usually added to juice or sprinkled with sugar to cut the extreme bitterness.
24. Charichuelo Fruit
Charichuelos look a lot like lumpy, bumpy lemons. A bright yellow, fragrant rind covers the sweet white pulp.
Charichuelo fruit has a melt-in-your-mouth texture similar to mangosteen. They’re sweet and tart and the flavor can be described as lemon cotton candy. Charichuelos can be eaten fresh when fully ripe or made into jams and preserves.
25. Chayote Fruit
Chayote fruits look like wrinkly, green pears. The whole chayote fruit is edible, although somewhat bland. Chayotes have the texture of a cross between a cucumber and a potato, crisp, starchy but juicy.
The fruits are most commonly sliced and used as an addition to salads but can be pickled, fried, mashed, or baked.
26. Cherimoya Fruit
Cherimoyas are sometimes referred to as custard apples. Cherimoya fruits are large, cone-shaped, green, and appear to have overlapping scales, like a dragon egg from a movie.
The black seeds are poisonous, but the sweet flesh of the fruit is creamy and nutritious. Cherimoyas can be eaten fresh off the tree by scooping the insides out with a spoon. They have a tropical flavor like a blend of banana and pineapple.
27. Chokecherry
Chokecherries are a dark red-black little berry that can grow almost anywhere. Chokecherries got their name because they are extremely astringent, with a bitterness surprising enough to cause a person to choke.
Chokecherries are edible when fully ripe but usually are used only sparingly in jams. The leaves and seeds of the chokecherry are highly toxic.
28. Citrofortunella
Citrofortunellas are small, orange-colored citrus fruits that grow on small, often ornamental trees. Citrofortunella is a hybrid fruit that was created by mixing citrus fruits and kumquats.
The fruits are difficult to peel and are often eaten when ripe, raw, and whole. Citrofortunellas are sweet and tart and make great marmalades.
29. Cloudberry
Cloudberries are a little fruit, that looks like a bright orange, fluffy cloud.
Cloudberries are rare and grow only one to a plant, which is difficult to find close to the ground, and in the northernmost regions of the world. There are festivals to celebrate the elusive cloudberry year-round in Finland.
The flavor of cloudberries is sweet with a hint of tart, comparable to a mix of raspberries, apricots, and olives. They are best eaten immediately after harvesting or make a highly sought-after jam.
30. Cluster Fig
Cluster figs grow in clusters right off the trunk of their tree. They’re small, round, slightly fuzzy, and change from green to yellow to dark red when ripe. These figs are fully edible and are naturally sweet with a slight tang.
Although they can be thoroughly enjoyed whole and fresh from tree or market, cluster figs are more commonly used in cooking and baking after the seeds have been removed.
31. Coco Plum
The skin of coco plums varies from snow white to bright pink. The whole fruit is edible.
The flesh of the coco plum is bright white with a creamy, fluffy, soft, sticky, and a bit slimy texture similar to marshmallows. The fruit has a very mild, coconut flavor with very little sweetness and no bitterness.
In the middle of the coco plum is a seed that you can crack open for the nut inside, which tastes like a slightly fruity walnut.
32. Coconut
Coconuts are an amazingly versatile fruit. The outside of the fruit is a hard brown shell that is covered in fibrous hairs. Inside the tough-to-crack shell is white flesh surrounding a pocket of coconut water.
The flesh is firm and has a mild tropical, nutty flavor. The water of the coconut, also called coconut juice, tastes like a liquid version of the meaty part.
The fruit can be eaten fresh and raw, cooked, or prepared in numerous ways to flavor everything from savory curries to the sweetest of desserts. Coconuts are also used to make oil, butter, sunscreen, and many other natural products.
33. Cucumber
Did you know cucumbers are fruits? It’s a common misconception that cucumbers are vegetables because of how they’re commonly eaten.
Cucumbers are long, skinny, and green-skinned with white flesh and rows of edible seeds covered in a juicy, somewhat slimy pulp.
The entire cucumber is edible. The skin may be slightly bitter when young, but the meat and pulp of the cucumber are refreshing and mild. Cucumbers are mainly eaten fresh and raw as-is or sliced for snacks and green salads. Certain varieties are very popular for turning into pickles.
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