Fruit

Greengage

S tier

Greengage covers green-to-yellow European dessert plums (Reine Claude types) with translucent amber-green flesh, thin skin, and honeyed, winey sweetness that many consider the finest fresh European plum flavour. Fruit is rounder than prune plums; fully ripe gages soften and may split after rain. Underripe gages taste grassy and sharp—wait for give and perfume. Eat raw as a luxury fruit; also excellent in tarts that show the green-gold colour. Scarcer in bulk retail than purple plums because of handling sensitivity. British and French orchard culture treats true gages as a category above ordinary cookers.