Classroom lesson 路 Mangoes馃嚨馃嚟 Philippines

Philippine mangoes

Bright yellow, super sweet, and famous all over the world

Two yellow Philippine carabao mangoes with one cut hedgehog-style in a bowl

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Philippines grows one of the most famous mangoes in the world. It is called the 'carabao mango', after the country's water-buffalo national animal. The fruit is small, bright yellow when ripe, and very sweet - some people say it is the sweetest mango on Earth.

Tell me more

Mangoes grow on big trees, sometimes 30 metres tall - taller than a ten-storey block of flats. The fruit hangs in clusters from long stems. Pickers use long bamboo poles with little nets on the end to gently catch them, one by one.

A green mango is sour and crunchy. A yellow mango is sweet and juicy. In the Philippines, both are popular - kids dip slices of green mango into salt or shrimp paste as a tangy snack, and ripe yellow mangoes are eaten on their own or blended into smoothies and ice creams.

The most common way to serve a ripe mango is the 'mango hedgehog'. The cook slices off one cheek of fruit, criss-crosses the inside with a knife without cutting through the skin, then pushes the skin inside-out so the cubes pop up - and you can eat each one with a spoon.

Mangoes have been growing in the Philippines for thousands of years. They are so important that the carabao mango is one of the country's national symbols, right alongside the eagle and the carabao itself.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Some fruits are eaten when they are not ripe (green mango, green banana). Why might that be?
  2. 02What is your favourite fruit? Where in the world is it grown?
  3. 03If a tree is 30 metres tall, how do you reach the fruit at the top safely?
Try this

Classroom activity

Bring in (or draw) different fruits. As a class, sort them by colour, by where they grow, and by whether you eat the skin. Then make a 'tropical fruit' chart of fruits that grow in hot places versus cold places.

More about Philippines

Other things that make Philippines special

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