By Porter Lang
Pick an avocado at the store and squeeze it. Hard? Give it time. Dark and yielding? Eat it now. That one habit explains most of what you need to know about the Hass, and the rest is history and arithmetic.
This piece covers where the fruit came from, how it ripens, where Mexico fits, and which numbers the sources do not agree on.
What the name comes from
Wikipedia says the English word “avocado” comes from the Spanish aguacate, which derives from the Nahuatl āhuacatl, and gives the earliest known English use as 1697, in the form “avogato pear.” Britannica, an encyclopedia, lists the scientific name Persea americana and the family Lauraceae, and says the plants were domesticated in tropical America before the Spanish conquest. Wikipedia adds that “avocado” and “alligator pear” were both used in the United States until 1915, when the California Avocado Association popularized “avocado.”
The oldest evidence
Wikipedia says the oldest known remains are from Huaca Prieta in Peru, where people ate avocados about 10,500 years ago. A separate Wikipedia article on avocado production in Mexico says remains of avocado seed leaves from Coxcatlán Cave in Tehuacán, Puebla, date to about 10,000 years ago. These are two places and two dates. The sources do not link them.
One tree
Wikipedia says all Hass trees descend from a single mother tree raised by Rudolph Hass, a mail carrier, in La Habra Heights, California. The National Association of Letter Carriers’ magazine, The Postal Record, says he was a letter carrier at the Pasadena post office who bought a 1.5-acre avocado orchard in 1925. Cooksinfo, a food encyclopedia site, says he planted a seed from a nursery in 1926. Wikipedia’s Hass article says the seeds came from A. R. Rideout of Whittier and that one strong seedling resulted.
The Postal Record tells the next part. Hass planned to graft Fuerte branches onto the seedlings, and one would not accept the graft. It grew dark, bumpy fruit and bore while only about 14 inches tall. A professional grafter persuaded him to leave it alone. His children preferred the taste. The Wikipedia article says his early grafting attempts failed at least twice.
Hass patented the tree in 1935, according to Wikipedia, which gives the patent as Plant Patent No. 139. The Postal Record says the name is often misspelled “Haas” and mispronounced; the Wikipedia article notes some supermarkets spell it that way. The mother tree died of root rot and was cut down on 11 September 2002, aged 76 according to Cooksinfo and the Wikipedia article.
Where the parentage stands
Wikipedia says a 2019 National Academy of Sciences genetic study found the Hass to be a cross between Mexican (61 percent) and Guatemalan (39 percent) avocado varieties. Cooksinfo calls it a hybrid descendant of the Guatemalan type. Wikipedia also says the seed Rideout supplied is of unknown cultivar, so the mother tree’s ancestry is not documented beyond that study. Our reading: the study fills a gap the nursery records left, but the two sources describe the cross differently.
Reading a Hass
This is the practical bit. Wikipedia says avocados are picked hard and green, then stored at 3.3 to 5.6 degrees Celsius (37.9 to 42.1 degrees Fahrenheit) until shipment. At room temperature they ripen in one to two weeks, depending on cultivar, and ethylene gas speeds ripening. Mexican growers pick Hass when dry matter exceeds 23 percent, according to the same article.
The Hass article describes the skin as dark green and bumpy before ripening and dark purplish-black when ripe, yielding to gentle pressure. The flesh is pale green near the skin and deeper yellow-green toward the center. Cooksinfo says the skin turns from green to purplish black as it matures, and “the darker the skin, the riper this avocado is.” It adds that the skin peels off easily and that fruit weighs 5 to 12 ounces (140 to 340 grams).
One caution. Skin color only works for Hass. Other cultivars Wikipedia names, such as Fuerte, Sharwil and Gwen, are not described by color in these sources, so we do not extend the rule to them.
How much of the world’s crop is Hass
- Wikipedia’s avocado article: 80 percent of cultivated avocados worldwide.
- Wikipedia’s Hass article: around 80 percent worldwide by the early twenty-first century, more than 80 percent of the US crop, 95 percent of the California crop.
- Wikipedia’s Mexico article: more than 85 percent of avocados grown worldwide.
- The Postal Record: about 80 percent of the world’s crop, about 95 percent of California’s.
- Cooksinfo: 95 percent of California avocados as of 2012.
The world figure sits between 80 and 85 percent depending on the page. We do not choose.
Mexico and Michoacán
According to Wikipedia’s avocado article, Mexico was the world’s leading producer in 2024, supplying 25 percent of the 11.2 million tonnes harvested globally, and Michoacán produced 75 percent of Mexico’s avocados that year. The Mexico article gives different figures: in 2023, about 3 million tons, or 29 percent of global output, with Michoacán at 92 percent. These are different years and different measures. The two articles share a platform and still disagree, which is worth knowing before quoting either.
The Mexico article also says Fuerte orchards were set up in the 1950s, with Hass orchards following about two decades later, and that US restrictions on avocado imports began in 1914 and were eliminated in 1997. It names Tancítaro, Michoacán, as calling itself the “avocado capital of the world,” with an annual festival. We give those as claims by the article.
Dates in order
- About 10,500 years ago: avocados eaten at Huaca Prieta, according to Wikipedia.
- 1697: first known English use of the word, according to Wikipedia.
- 1925: Hass buys the orchard, according to the Postal Record and Cooksinfo.
- 1926: the seedling is planted, according to Cooksinfo and the Wikipedia Hass article.
- 1935: the patent.
- 1950s: Fuerte orchards in Michoacán; Hass about two decades later, according to Wikipedia’s Mexico article.
- 1997: US import restrictions eliminated, according to the same article.
- 2002: the mother tree is cut down.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia supplies most of the detail across three articles. Britannica is an encyclopedia and gave only the name and family. Cooksinfo is a food encyclopedia site. The Postal Record is the magazine of a letter carriers’ union. We read no grower, packer, trade body or government page.
What we left out
Prices, export values and the dollars Hass earned. The cartel and security reports in the Mexico article, which we judged outside what this page can responsibly cover. The Super Bowl link. Recipes and brand names. Anything about nutrition.
Quick answers
How can I tell a Hass avocado is ripe? Wikipedia and Cooksinfo say the skin turns from dark green to dark purplish-black, and ripe fruit yields to gentle pressure.
Where did the Hass avocado come from? Wikipedia says every Hass tree descends from one mother tree raised by mail carrier Rudolph Hass in La Habra Heights, California, patented in 1935.
Which part of Mexico grows the most avocados? Michoacán. Wikipedia gives its share as 75 percent in 2024 in one article and 92 percent in 2023 in another.
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