First things first, how would you even know if an avocado is ripe? It’s not like you can slice it open quickly to check. It all comes down to the colour and the texture. Let’s begin with colour.
Bright green: If your avocado has a bright green colour, this means that it is still around four to seven days from being ripe. Avocados this colour will typically be hard to the touch and will need to rest on the benchtop for a few days – maybe even a week – before you can eat them. Underripe avocados tend to lack flavour.
Very dark green: While browsing the avocado bins at the grocery store, check for the darkest green if you think you’re going to want to eat this avocado within a day or so. You want it to be firm, but with a slight give (not too mushy). If you find this, you may have the perfect avocado on your hands.
Black: Avocados that are too dark, almost black, are past ripeness. They may look a bit more wrinkled and are very soft to the touch. If you feel as if you could bruise the fruit just by holding it, the avocado is overripe. The inside will often have some brown spots and won’t taste as fresh.
Sometimes colours can vary, so step two of the avocado ripeness test is touch. Gently press into the avocado to feel how hard it is. You want to make sure that the fruit is soft with a little give, but not too soft that you feel like you could morph the shape with your hands. You can also pluck off the tiny stem and see if it’s green underneath. The green colour means that the fruit is ready to eat. If you need to pull really hard to get the stem off or it won’t budge, that means it isn’t ripe yet.