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How to buy perfect avocados, according to a food scientist

You're at the grocery store, and you want to buy an avocado.

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How can you tell whether they're perfectly ripe and delicious, and not bitter or overripe?

America's Test Kitchen chef and food-science expert Dan Souza told Tech Insider that picking the best avocados was surprisingly easy.

"Your best bet with avocados is to give them a gentle squeeze," Souza said, "to see if they're ripe and ready to be used that day."

avocado
It's perfect. I bet they used these tips. Ruth Hartnup on Flickr

You want them to have some give without being totally mushy.

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The color of the skin also provides a clue; it should be dark but not recessed or separated from the flesh:

How_to_Pick___Buy_Hass_Avocados___Hass_Avocado
Hass Avocado provides this handy guide to ripeness. Hass Avocado/Screenshot

If you don't plan on eating them that day or the next, pick an avocado that's a little firmer.

But one thing you unfortunately can't tell without cutting it open, Souza said, is whether the avocado will have those brown spots inside.

"A lot of that has to do with how they're handled during shipping, and it's not visible on the outside," he said. "So unfortunately there's not a really good way to pick that. It's a total bummer. And they are expensive, so it's a little bit tricky."

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