Are you looking for fruits that start with the letter T? Here are 20 fruits that begin with a T along with some helpful information about each.
Hey there, fruit aficionados and curious foodies alike! Get ready to have your mind blown with a wild journey through the jungle of fruits that start with the letter “T”! Who knows, maybe you’ll discover a new favorite fruit or find the answer to your Sunday crossword!
Some of the world’s most favorite fruits start with the letter T, and so do a few pretty unique regional favorites. This list, with a bit about each fruit, will hopefully pique your interest in eating your fruits and veggies.
Get ready to peel back the layers of fruity goodness and embark on this “T-rrific” adventure.
Tachibana Orange
Tachibana Orange is a variety of mandarin orange that grows wild in Japanese forests. It is likely an ancient variety. So, what is a mandarin? Mandarin oranges are a small, loose-skinned variety of the common orange, typically sweeter and less acidic than the larger oranges. Thought to have originated in India, they travelled across China where they picked up the name “mandarin”. They made their way to England and Euro-tripped it down to Italy, eventually making it to the Moroccan port of Tangier, where they garnered another name, “tangerine”. If you want to know more about mandarins like nutrition facts (excellent), uses (many), or anything else check out Mandarin Oranges 101: Everything You Need To Know About Mandarins.
Tamarillo
Tamarillo are also called Tree Tomatoes. They are an egg shaped fruit generally in orange or red. The trees grow seeming across the globe and thus not surprisingly uses of the fruit are many and varied. Perhaps most commonly the fruit is halved and eaten by scooping out the pulp. The yellow to orange variety are sweeter sometimes compared to a mango or apricot. The red variety is more tart, but much move heavily cultivated.
Tangelo
Tangelo are a cross between a tangerine (mandarin) and a pomelo. They are easily identified by their distinctive bump or nipple at the stem. Tangelo can be used in pretty much any application you would use a mandarin orange. This Healthy Orange Dreamsicle Smoothie comes to mind.
Tangerine
Tangerine is another name for Mandarin. The name Mandarin, obviously, just came from the fruit’s introduction to China and Tangerine to Tangiers Morocco. Whichever name you prefer they are a great fruit with a lot of uses. Mandarin Nutrition Facts and Recipe Ideas.
Tangor
Tangor is a hybrid between a Tangerine and an Orange, so you can pretty much use it like you would either an orange or tangerine (mandarin) how about in Orange Sweet Rolls with Cranberry?
Tart Cherries
Tart Cherries are also known as Sour Cherries. They are not usually eaten raw as sweet cherries are. They are generally cooked where as sweet cherries tend to lose some of their flavor when cooked. A good option for sour cherries is to use them in Chia Seed Cherry Jam or other preserves as you can then sweeten it to taste.
Tayberry
Tayberry were patented in 1979 in Scotland as a cross between blackberries and red raspberries. The trick to these berries is that they do not pick well by hand and not at all by machine, so they have not been commercialized. Thus, they remain something you can try while on vacation in the UK.
Taylor’s Gold Pear
Taylor’s Gold Pear is a pear variety discovered on a farm in New Zealand in 1986. It appears to be a cross between Bosc and Comice pears. Shortly after its discovery the variety was sent to the USA where it grows in Washington State. So this is just one of about 3,000 pear varieties. It is a high fiber fruit that can be eaten so many ways, raw, dried, candied, juiced, in wine, schnapps, etc. Check out our guide on Pear Types 101 and perhaps consider yet another way to enjoy pears in Pear Pizza with Gorgonzola and Thyme.
Terap
Terap are native to Borneo. They look much like a jackfruit but are quite large and covered in spines. Their flesh is said to be quite sweet and locally eaten as a dessert. Terap are a smelly fruit often not allowed in hotels when tourists attempt to buy them locally.
Texas Persimmon
Texas Persimmon is a small variety of persimmon native to Texas, SW Oklahoma, and Northern Mexico. The fruit appear to be eaten more commonly by wildlife than humans, but can be made into a variety of desserts.
Thimberry
Thimberry is a North American berry that resembles the raspberry. They are not commercially grown as the berries are too delicate to harvest easily, so they are generally only eaten by berry pickers.
Tomatillo
Tomatillo are also known as the Mexican husk tomato as it has an onion like outer skin that easily peels off. Tomatillos have grown in Mexico since well before Columbus and a Tomatillo fossil believed to be 52 million years old was found in Argentina. Tomatillos are best known for use in Mexican and Central American green sauces provided by their natural color. They are also used in soups, salads, curries, stir fries, and baking.
Tomato
Tomato began as a wild plant in the Andes Mountains, but are now one of the world’s favorite foods grown on all continents save Antarctica and in hundreds of varieties Types of Tomatoes: Which Is Best? Tomatoes have a wonderful nutrition profile that is more like a vegetable than a fruit with only 5 calories per ounce and loads of vitamins and minerals.
Tompkins King apples
Tompkins King apples originated in New Jersey around 1800. They are large apples said to be good for both desserts and savory cooking. There may be as many as 30,000 apple varieties worldwide today, and 2,500 of these are grown in the United States. Apples have been grown and eaten since the Roman Era and quite possibly before that. If you want more information on just a few of the most popular American apples check out our Apples 101 Nutritional and Variety Guide.
Tommy Atkins Mango
Tommy Atkins Mango is a mango variant that is generally not seen as having the optimum sweetness and flavor, but is known for a long shelf life. The fruit also holds up to transportation and handling without bruising which is a definite advantage in commercial sales. It would not be the ideal mango for this Mango Smoothie Recipe, but our Mangoes 101 Guide might have some ideas for a less sweet mango.
Topaz Apples
Topaz Apples are a dessert apple developed in the Czech Republic. They are noteworthy for being highly disease-resistant. As a dessert apple they would be great in recipes like these Apple Gouda Hand Pies.
Totapuri Mango
Totapuri Mango are native to India, and are not as sweet as most mango. This makes them better used in savory recipes or perhaps this Avocado Mango Salad with Creamy Yogurt Dressing.
Tourist Pineapples
Tourist Pineapples are actually known as pandanus. The name tourist pineapple comes from the fact that the pandanus looks very much like a pineapple and is often confused with such by tourists. The pulp of the pandanus can be eaten raw, cooked, or made into a flour for use making cakes.
Trifoliate Oranges
Trifoliate Oranges are probably the most cold resistant orange variety known, and thus also called the Hardy Orange. The smallish fruit is quite sour and rarely eaten raw, but are said to cook well. Their taste is similar to lemon or grapefruit.
Tropical Apricots
Tropical Apricots are native to East Africa. They are very similar to the apricots we get at the grocery, but smaller growing to only about 1” across. Apricots are a nutritional dynamo containing a lot of vitamin A as well as an abundance of many other vitamins and minerals. They also have only about 15 calories per ounce making them relatively low calorie. They are eaten around the world in a variety of international dishes, but for many people eating them raw or in jams & jellies is often the favorite. Turkey is world’s leading producer of apricots. On a sidenote American Army and Marine Corps tankers have a strict rule that apricots are not allowed on tanks. I am not making this up. My father, a tanker from the 1991 Gulf War and Second Iraq war, swears this is the case. We aren’t talking fuel tanker here, but those big beasts with a huge cannon and machine-guns. But, no apricots onboard.
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