Pick The Ripest Strawberries At The Store With A Simple Smell Test

Strawberries are one of the best summer fruits to exist — whether you're eating them straight from the carton, dipping them in chocolate, or adding them to a vanilla cake. When these berries are ripe, they're the perfect balance of sweet, slightly tart, and juicy. But nothing is quite as disappointing as biting into a sad, bland berry instead. If you want to avoid one of the most common mistakes everyone makes when buying strawberries, here's a simple trick: Use your nose.

Smelling your berries is a great way to determine their ripeness. Since strawberries don't ripen further after being picked, how they smell at the store is a good indicator of how they'll taste. Ripe strawberries give off an intensely floral, sweet scent — they can sometimes even smell like candy. If you're smelling very little or nothing from your carton, this likely means your berries are underripe. And if your nose is picking up any sour or fermented smells, it's also best to skip this container — this is a sign that the berries are either overripe or spoiled.

While the scent of your strawberries is a very helpful way to determine ripeness, you should also be on the lookout for clues in their appearance. Try to pick strawberries with a vibrant red color all over. Skip any cartons with berries that have white or green patches — this means they're not fully ripe. The leaves and stems should be green in color, with signs of browning, and the seeds should appear slightly embedded in the berry, rather than sitting on the surface.

If you're able to gently touch your strawberries, the ones at peak ripeness will be firm with a little give. You might think that the biggest strawberries are the ripest ones, but bigger isn't actually better when it comes to buying the best strawberries. These are only larger in size because they contain more water, so the smaller berries are the ones packed with concentrated flavor. And of course, avoid any mushy or moldy-looking berries. If you discover one hiding in your container when you get home, get rid of it so it doesn't spoil the rest. With a quick sniff and a few visual cues, you can be sure that every strawberry you pick is the ripest it can be.