At a staggering $42 per mango, the Egg of the Sun Miyazaki Mango is the kind of fruit that makes you question your life choices – and your credit score. But before you dismiss it as just a glorified fruit salad ingredient for billionaires, let’s unpack why this tropical treasure commands such a lofty price tag.

First off, these mangoes aren’t your average supermarket fruit. Grown in Japan’s Miyazaki Prefecture, where the soil is pampered, the climate is just-so and the fruit is nurtured with the kind of care that borders on obsessive, these mangoes are the divas of the fruit world.

They’re cultivated under strict conditions, with the trees often sheltered from rain and swaddled in nets to protect them from pests. Each mango is carefully checked for the perfect balance of sugar, acidity and texture, and is allowed to ripen on the tree until it falls, rather than being hand-harvested.

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What truly sets the Miyazaki Mango apart is its unique flavour profile: rich, sweet and buttery, with a texture that is very low in stringy fibre. Its flesh is deep orange, practically glowing like the sun (hence the name). You don’t just eat it; you savour it.

If you eyeball the online fruit shop and try to bail out, don’t worry: a smiling little pop-up will start blinking, “Hey, wait a sec! You forgot something here!” So. Avoid judgement from a webpage and transfer some money beforehand.

But is any fruit worth $42? Well, that depends on your perspective. If you’re the type to drop hundreds on a bottle of wine because it ‘pairs well with the ambiance’, then sure, why not splurge? If not, you can always admire these fruity feats of engineering from afar — just don’t expect them to show up in your next fruit salad.

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