Tool pits, but mangles, mangoes

Hooray for mango season!

I love ripe mango, but when I was younger I was very allergic to the sap, so others would cut the fruit, leaving me with ready-to-eat slices or cubes. As I got older some of my friends would simply hand me gloves. These days I usually scrub the mango well, cut off the skin as quickly as I can, then wash my hands.

It seemed a mango-slicing gadget might be perfect for me. So after receiving a few mangoes recently I searched the island for such a tool, wanting to find one before the season ended and wishing I’d ordered the one I saw online a month ago. I finally found a mango splitter (or mango pitter, as a sales associate called it) at Williams-Sonoma in Ala Moana Center.

Instructions for the OXO Good Grips tool list just three steps: Stand mango stem side down; steady mango and center splitter on top; press down.

I tried the tool on three mangoes of different sizes. While the splitter sliced through the first ripe mango pretty easily, it got stuck in the other two because their seeds were slightly bigger than the circumference of the splitter and the oval of the splitter wasn’t lined up exactly over the oval seed.

Then a friend of mine gave me some ripe Hayden mangoes from her cousin’s yard. “Perfect timing,” I told her. These mangoes were sweet and juicy and it didn’t take much effort to push the gadget through the fruit. But I was sad when a lot of juice burst out as soon as the splitter pierced the skin. Refrigerating the fruit first didn’t help.

Does it work?: Yes.

Pros: Fast. Small enough to fit in a drawer. Easy to wash.

Cons: Won’t work if the pit of the mango is too big. The cut isn’t clean, so the mango flesh ends up a little shredded. A lot of the juice is wasted. Sometimes it doesn’t cut all the way through the bottom skin.

Cost and availability: $13.95 plus tax at Williams-Sonoma; various prices online.

Worth it?: While I like this gadget for its speed, I don’t like how it shreds the flesh of the mango.

Got a gadget that you love? Curious about one you’d like us to test? Email crave@staradvertiser.com or write Crave, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813.