日本农民培育出酸酸甜甜的“柠檬西瓜”
Japanese farmers develop sweet and sour ‘lemon melon’

The Lemon Melon is a newly-developed type of melon that apparently combines the sweetness and aroma of the melon with a slight sourness reminiscent of a lemon.

Japanese horticulture company Suntory Flowers reportedly spent five years developing the lemon melon, breeding it from a type of melon originally imported from overseas. The final product, which is apparently blended with actual lemons, is juicy and sweet like a melon but slightly sour like a lemon, making the perfect fruit to enjoy on a hot summer day.

The lemon melon has the usual round shape of a melon, but its rind lacks the characteristic stripes and striation of a melon, and has white flesh. The texture is comparable to that pears, but it softens as it ripens and ends up like that of Yubari melons. There are currently only five farmers in Hokkaido growing lemon melons, and they are expected to grow about 3,800 lemon melons this year.

Lemon melons have already hit Japanese supermarket shelves, selling for around 3,220 yen a piece. Those lucky enough to have tried it, can’t stop raving about its delicious taste.

"It has a faint sourness like a lemon, but the strong sweetness of a melon. It’s delicious,” a reporter from HBC News said.

"It has a good balance of sweet and sour. It would be the perfect fruit for a hot day,” another person said.

The lemon melon is the latest addition to Japan’s popular luxury fruit market, which includes edible wonders like the world’s most expensive watermelon, square-shaped watermelons, Ruby Roman, the world’s most expensive grapes, and white jewels, Japan’s iconic white strawberries.