All Avocados Explained in 8 Minutes

From a fruit that ancient warriors ate for strength before battle to one that nearly went extinct before a single Mexican farmer saved it, these are 12 types of avocado you've probably seen your whole life, broken down in ways you never expected. Let's jump straight into it with the one variety everybody thinks they know, but actually don't. Hass. People call the Hass avocado just a regular avocado, and honestly, that's one of the greatest understatements in food history. The Hass accounts for over 80% of all avocados eaten worldwide, and every single one traces back to one tree, a single seedling planted in a California backyard by a male carrier named Rudolph Hass in 1926. He almost cut it down because it wasn't producing fast enough. His kids talked him out of it. Rudolph patented the tree in 1935, making it the first avocado to ever receive a U.S. patent, and every Hass avocado you've ever eaten is technically a clone of that one backyard tree. The skin turns from green to dark purple black when ripe, which makes it one of the easiest avocados to know when to eat. That color change is your signal. Fuerte. Before the Hass took over, there was the Fuerte, and its story starts with a disaster. In the brutal winter freeze of 1913, nearly every avocado tree in California was wiped out, except one Mexican variety that survived when everything else died. Farmers named it Fuerte, which means strong in Spanish, and it dominated American markets from the 1920s all the way through the 1970s. It's pear-shaped, smooth-skinned, and stays green even when fully ripe, which made it tricky for shoppers who couldn't tell if it was ready to eat. That's a big reason the Hass eventually overtook it. People liked being able to tell just by looking. Bacon. Yes, it's really called bacon, and no, it has nothing to do with the meat. Harold Bacon, a and it's one of the few avocados that actually thrives in cold weather, making it a big deal for growers in regions where other avocados simply won't survive. The flavor is lighter and more watery than a Hass, with noticeably lower fat content, making it one of the lowest-calorie avocado options out there. It also has one of the longest shelf lives of any avocado, which made it a favorite for early long-distance shipping before refrigerated transport even existed. Pinkerton. The Pinkerton is one of the most underrated avocados in existence, and most people have never heard of it. Developed by John Pinkerton in California in the early 1970s, its biggest flex is the size-to-seed ratio. The seed is tiny compared to the body of the fruit, meaning you get significantly more edible flesh per avocado than almost any other variety. It also produces fruit earlier in the season than most varieties, and yields more fruit per tree, giving farmers a longer and more profitable growing window. In avocado-growing communities, the Pinkerton is quietly considered one of the best ever bred. Reed. If you've ever seen an avocado the size of a softball and done a double-take, that was probably a reed. Developed by James Reed in California in 1948, it can weigh up to a full pound. But despite its size, the seed stays small, so almost all of that mass is pure, edible avocado. The flesh is incredibly creamy and mild, with a buttery, almost sweet flavor, and unlike most avocados, a cut reed won't brown as quickly, making it a favorite for slicing and serving whole. It also ripens in the summer months when hass availability dips, making it an important gap filler in the avocado market. Zutano. The Zutano looks like it doesn't belong. It's pale, shiny, and stays bright yellow-green even when completely ripe. Next to the dark, pebbly hass, it looks almost unfinished. But the Zutano plays a role most people don't realize. It's one of the most important pollinator varieties in commercial avocado farming. Avocado trees have a strange quirk where their flowers can't efficiently pollinate themselves. So, many commercial hass orchards include rows of Zutano trees, purely to help the hass trees produce more fruit. It's not the flashiest avocado, but without it, there'd be a lot fewer hass avocados in the world. The Nabel. The Nabel is the aristocrat of the avocado world, and it comes from a completely different branch of the avocado family tree. Guatemalan avocados evolved at higher altitudes, making them hardier, denser, and more cold-tolerant than other varieties. And the perfectly round Nabel is their crown jewel, with a bold, earthy flavor that avocado connoisseurs love. Ancient Guatemalan civilizations cultivated avocados for thousands of years before European contact, and avocado seeds have been found in Mayan burial sites dating back over 5,000 years. The word avocado itself comes from the Nahuatl word ahuacatl, which the Aztecs also used as slang for a part of the male anatomy, because of how the fruit hangs in pairs on the Choquette. Florida has its own avocado culture, and the Choquette is at the center of it. Developed in Miami in the 1930s, this variety is everything the hass is not. Massive, smooth, shiny, and stays green when ripe, with a single fruit capable of weighing up to two pounds. The flesh is less oily, with a lighter, cleaner taste that works incredibly well in smoothies and salads, and its high water content makes it one of the most hydrating avocados you can eat. One mature Choquette tree can produce hundreds of pounds of fruit in a single season, which means neighbors with one in their backyard are very popular people. Lula The lula avocado has one of the most romantic origin stories in fruit history. In the early 1900s, a Miami fruit grower named George Tellon found a seedling growing near his home, and named it after his wife, Lula. It became one of the most important varieties in early American avocado history, forming the genetic backbone for dozens of Florida varieties that came after it, and was one of the first avocados to be widely studied by the USDA in the 1920s. While it's been largely replaced in commercial production, the lula remains a beloved backyard tree in Florida and the Caribbean. Grown not for profit, but simply because it tastes great and has history baked into every bite. Mexican Criollo Wild avocado Before any polished commercial varieties existed, there was the wild avocado. Small, thin-skinned, and intensely flavored. The Mexican Criollo grows in the highlands of Michoacán, the birthplace of the entire avocado species, and humans have been eating it for at least 10,000 years. But here's something mind-bending. The avocado nearly went extinct. Its large seeds evolved to be spread by giant prehistoric animals, like the gamfo there, a relative of the elephant, and when those creatures died off 12,000 years ago, the avocado lost its main seed spreader. It only survived because ancient Mexican farmers started deliberately planting it. Without them, avocados likely wouldn't exist at all. Ettinger Israel became one of the world's leading avocado exporters almost by accident, and the Ettinger is the variety that made it happen. Developed in the 1950s specifically to thrive in Israel's Mediterranean climate, it's a mild, clean-tasting early-season avocado that now reaches over 30 countries every fall. What sets it apart commercially is its unusually long window of peak ripeness. It doesn't go from perfect to overripe nearly as fast as other varieties, a critical advantage for the long shipping routes from Israel to Europe. The country's avocado research became so influential that farming techniques developed that are now used by growers around the world. Lamb, Hass The lamb hass is what happens when scientists try to improve on perfection. Developed at the University of California, Riverside in the 1980s, it was bred with one specific goal, to produce fruit in summer and fall, exactly when regular hass trees stop producing, so consumers have access to great avocados almost year-round. It's larger than a standard hass, but has the same pebbly skin, the same rich, creamy flavor, and in blind taste tests, most people genuinely can't tell the difference. It also handles heat stress and disease better than the original, which in a warming climate, might end up being its most important quality of all.