Costco is selling Golden Kiwi in a two pound plastic clamshell. The brand is Zespri and they market the produce as Organic Sungold Kiwifruit. The kiwi is imported from New Zealand.
I bought a package of the Golden Kiwi to try adding some new flavors in my kitchen and really enjoyed them!
While you typically encounter green kiwifruit at grocery stores (Actinidia deliciosa) the gold fleshed kiwifruit Zespri Sungold (Actinidia chinensis spp.) are becoming a much more common sighting.
Taste
A golden kiwi tastes very much like a regular kiwi with flavor notes best described as a banana/strawberry cross. The main differences in flavors compared to a green kiwi is that golden kiwis are less tart and much sweeter. For lack of a better phrase, I think you can say that a golden kiwi tastes more “tropical” than a green one.
Golden kiwi does not have the exterior fuzz found on green kiwis which makes eating he nutritious skin more appealing for some people.
The fruit has a tender, yielding texture and the seeds are completely edible.
What to Do With Kiwis?
These kiwi come in a two pound box so, while you might feel like snacking on a few of them with a spoon you also might need a way of using them up before they get overripe.
These kiwis would be great:
- Blended into smoothies
- Sliced onto a salad with fresh strawberries
- Diced and stirred into yogurt
- Juiced and mixed with lemonade
- Tossed with diced pineapple, lime juice and peppers for a great salsa
- As the centerpiece for a fruit salad
Nutritional Benefits
A single serving of golden kiwi has the following nutritional information:
- Calories: 100
- Fat: 0g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
- Sodium: 0mg
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Protein: 2g
The health benefits of eating kiwi fruit is well documented in this article from the European Journal of Health and includes benefits for:
- IBS
- Constipation
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetes
The golden variety of kiwi also comes with a much higher amount of Vitamin C than the green variety (161 vs 92 mg/100g).
And again, the nutritional value of the golden variety should also be much higher than the green because more people will eat the nutrient dense skin of the hairless gold kiwis.
Costco Value
I bought the 2 pound box of Golden Kiwi at Costco for $10.99 which works out to a cost of $5.50 per pound.
On average I have found that the gold kiwi usually cost about 20% more than the green variety.
