Dried Mangoes

Photo: Philippine brand Dried Mangoes

For decades, packaged dried mangoes from the Philippines, particularly those for export, have been dry and tough because of the addition of sugar and preservatives. The texture had become familiar and expected to regular eaters of this snack.

Recently though, the trend has been towards bringing to market “all-natural dried mangoes” which are moist and tenderly chewy. This newer version doesn’t have any sugar added. If you’d like to make them a little drier, keep an open pack in the refrigerator.

Philippine dried mangoes are widely available worldwide. In the United States, you can even buy them at Costco, on Amazon and on Walmart’s online store.

They are produced and marketed not just by Filipino enterprises like the Amley Food Corporation of Misamis Oriental, but by major U.S. companies as well, including Sunsweet, the world’s largest handler of dried fruits. Sunsweet even has dried Philippine Green Mango as part of its Pacific Tropicals line. They are GF (gluten-free) products.

The Tagalog word for “mango” is mangga, but Filipinos ordinarily call dried mangoes by the English phrase.