Food - Drink
What Is The Sweetest Variety Of Watermelon?
By MEGGAN ROBINSON
You may not know that the sugar content of foods can be measured in a unit called the Brix value; in the case of watermelon, the higher the Brix value, the sweeter the melon. Watermelon producers use a device called a refractometer, or a Brix meter, to determine when it’s time to harvest their crops, and this is the variety of watermelon that gets the highest readings.
A Brix value over 8.3 is considered sweet, while anything over 9.0 is very sweet. Each size category of watermelon has its own variety that is consistently the sweetest; the smallest watermelons are "mini" or "personal" and weigh around 5 pounds, "icebox" watermelons weigh around 10 pounds, and huge "picnic" watermelons weigh up to 15 pounds.
The personal watermelon with the highest Brix value is the Pony Yellow, with a Brix of 12.3, and the sweetest picnic varieties are the Sultan and Summer Sweet melons, which come in at 12.3 and 12.4 Brix respectively. However, the sweetest watermelon of all in the icebox category is the Super Gold variety, with a Brix value of 12.8.