Ataulfo
Custardy and floral with a buttery texture and a bright sweet-sour balance.
Ataulfo mangoes purchased at Medellín Market in Mexico City, photographed by El Mono Español.
Mangos ataulfos.jpg — El Mono Español. Photograph source · CC BY-SA 4.0.
Original source file; no edits.
How it tastes
Honey · Floral · Bright
- Texture
- buttery
- Fibre
- Low fibre
- Eating styles
- Bring a spoon
- Harvest
- See regional calendars
How to enjoy it
Often sold as honey mango, Ataulfo has a slender stone and a generous amount of smooth flesh for its size. A few wrinkles on golden skin can be welcome. Inside, the texture is closer to custard than a crisp fruit salad.
Slice off the cheeks and scoop with a teaspoon. A squeeze of lime is an optional sharp counterpoint.
When it is ripe
Choose a wrinkled golden skin with a little give.
Flavour notes are subjective. Ripeness, handling and growing conditions change the fruit.
Compare this mango · Saved mangoes
Names, history & sources
Recorded names
A shared name does not by itself establish an identical cultivar. Place, language and source matter.
- Ataulfo
- Ataulfo / Ataúlfo
Remembers Ataulfo Morales Gordillo of Tapachula.
- IMC-M2
The selection designation recorded in the official Mexican history.
- Honey
English market name used for Ataulfo mangoes.
- Champagne
Existing catalogue label. It may be an alternate name, translation or market nickname; it is not an assertion of genetic identity.
Five trees, one remembered name
Documented history: consult the claims and qualifications in the cited sources.
The name remembers Ataulfo Morales Gordillo, whose property in Tapachula held five exceptional mango trees. Mexico’s official account records research on those trees in 1963 and the nursery work of agronomist Héctor Cano Flores at Rosario Izapa. A neighbourhood fruit became a selection that growers could share.
The scientific selection was called IMC-M2; the name that travelled was Ataulfo. In 2003, Mango Ataulfo del Soconusco Chiapas received a protected designation of origin, preserving the connection between the fruit and this corner of Mexico. “Honey” is a market name you may meet abroad, but Ataulfo carries the person and place with it.
Read the full storyPlaces in this record
Country associations alone do not establish botanical origin.
- Mexico
Catalogue association
Associated place in the tasting catalogue; this does not establish botanical origin.
- Tapachula, Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico
A place in the story
Setting of “Five trees, one remembered name”. Read the story for its evidence and qualifications.
Harvest calendars by growing place. These regional calendars do not specify this cultivar’s exact season.