The ever misunderstood black sheep of the avocado world, we’ve been gorging ourselves on the delicious, Class-A Hass avocados for months and are now having to face that they’re out of season, so we’re stuck with Shepard avocados.

Are we brats? Yes. Are we sorry about it? No.

As a Hass stan, I always seem to make the same mistake year after year by trying to apply the same Hass rules to a Shepard avocado before inevitably bending a fork trying to smash it into my toast and feeling like breakfast has been ruined.

However, within this incredibly important journalistic rabbit hole, I am travelling down, I’ve since discovered that you can actually enjoy Shepard avocados - you just have to let them get ripe. That seems obvious, but I mean really, really ripe. I can’t confirm it because I’ve always thought they were super ripe, and gone to cut into them, only for my knife to be met with a resistance that only a catfishing Shepard avocado can uphold.

There are scores of people who ‘enjoy’ Shepard avocados all year round. And love them for their nutty taste, never browning flesh, and firm shape that holds themselves when mixing through a salad. And sure, I guess people are different, and I should respect that.

For those who cannot accept Shepard avocados, fear not: Hass season starts again in May. Phew.