How to Pick the Sweetest Watermelon Every Time — I Tested the Most Popular Tricks So You Don’t Have To

It turns out we’ve been tapping watermelons the wrong way this whole time. Well, at least I have — I always did it with my knuckles, but apparently you’re supposed to give it a slap with your palm while holding it in the other hand. After the tap, you shouldn’t focus on the sound, but on the vibration, which you should feel with your other palm.

Sometimes people suggest squeezing a watermelon between your palms, but if it was somehow squeezed during transport, it won’t crunch a second time, so I don’t rely on that sign.

I always thought a dry stem was a sure sign that a watermelon was ripe. But in reality, the little tail dries out a few days after it’s picked from the melon patch, so even an unripe one can have this feature.

But there’s another, practically foolproof sign of ripeness. Take a look at the spot where the stem grows from. While the tail itself can dry out at the store or during transport, the “button” stays the same as it was at harvest. It should be dry and brown — that’s an excellent sign that your watermelon is ripe.

We all know that the yellow spot on one side of a watermelon is a sign of ripeness. But sometimes we come across fruit with 2, or even 3, similar marks. And if one spot is where the watermelon was resting on the ground, the others are what’s known as sunscald. They mean the watermelon spent too much time in the sun and became overripe.

By the way, I try to choose ones with the darkest spot — the more yellow the color, the longer the watermelon stayed in the melon patch.

I know a lot depends on the watermelon variety, but if there are both oval and round ones in the store, I always go for the round one. Once, as an experiment, I bought 2 watermelons of different shapes, and with everything else being equal, the round one turned out to be noticeably sweeter than its oval counterpart.

Most likely, figuring out whether a watermelon is heavy enough for its size can be pretty tricky. But I came up with a way around it: I try lifting different fruits of the same size and choose the one that feels heavier. This trick has never let me down, considering the other signs of ripeness are there. Based on my experience, a watermelon about 10 inches in diameter should weigh at least 11 pounds.

I don’t know if there’s a scientific name for it, but people commonly call these gray lines “bee webbing.” It’s believed to be a sign that the fruit in the melon patch was pollinated by bees, which brushed against the ovary in the process and left those distinctive marks behind. I don’t know exactly how it works, but gourds covered in that “webbing” have never let me down. So if I’m choosing between 2 identical fruits, I’ll go with the one that has those brown spots and streaks.

A ripe watermelon should have a matte rind. A shiny one is a clear sign that the fruit was picked from the melon patch too early. It should also be firm: I press it with my fingernail, and if the rind gives, I keep looking. I also pay attention to the pattern — the stripes should be clearly defined and high-contrast.

As a rule, the watermelons in our stores are striped, with dark and light green pattern. Recently, I learned a simple tip that can help you pick the sweetest one of all: place 2 fingers against a dark green stripe, and if it’s about the same width, you can confidently go for it. At first, I thought it seemed, to put it mildly, pretty far-fetched, but no — this trick has worked for me several times.

• One day, I found myself at the market. I got a craving for watermelon and had my eye on one: dry stem, yellow spot — perfect! I rubbed my hands together and reached for the scale.
  And then a man from the neighboring stall practically snatched it out of my hands and whispered, “Leave it, my dear. If you want one that’s really sweet, look for one with a dark stripe 2 fingers wide.”
  He picked one out, held his fingers against it, nodded with satisfaction, and handed it to me, saying, “Here, my dear, this one will be as sweet as your smile. I’ve been selling these watermelons my whole life, trust me.”
  So I did. Indeed, the watermelon was the sweetest I had ever tasted.