Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is one tree, but the pods you get can taste very different. Some trees produce mouth-puckering sour pulp that cooks love. Others produce pulp sweet enough to eat straight from the shell like candy. If you're planting a tamarind, deciding between sweet and sour is the most important choice you'll make. Here's how they differ, how to grow either one, and how to pick the right tree for your yard and kitchen.
New to tamarind? Our guide How to Grow a Tamarind Tree in Florida covers planting basics. This post focuses on the sweet-versus-sour decision.
What is tamarind?
Tamarind is a long-lived tropical tree native to Africa and grown across India, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. It has fine, feathery leaves, small yellow-and-red flowers, and brown pods filled with sticky pulp around hard seeds. That pulp is the tangy flavor behind agua de tamarindo, pad Thai, chutneys, Worcestershire sauce, tamarind candies and many curries.
Sour tamarind
Most tamarind trees in the world are sour types. Their pulp is high in tartaric acid, which gives a sharp, tangy flavor.
- Taste: Very tart, with some sweetness underneath. Usually too sour to enjoy raw for most people.
- Best for: Cooking. Sour tamarind is the classic choice for tamarind paste, sauces, curries, chutneys, marinades and drinks, where sugar is added.
- How it's usually grown: Often from seed. Seedlings vary from tree to tree, but most produce sour fruit.
Sweet tamarind
Sweet tamarinds are selections whose pulp has much less acid, so the natural sugars come through. Thailand is famous for sweet tamarind varieties sold fresh as a snack.
- Taste: Sweet, rich and date-like, with only a mild tang.
- Best for: Snacking fresh from the pod, desserts, and drinks that need less sugar. Sweet pulp can still be cooked with, but it gives less of the sour punch some recipes rely on.
- How it's usually grown: To reliably keep sweet fruit, trees are best propagated vegetatively (grafted or air-layered) from a known sweet tree. Seedlings from sweet trees may produce sweet, sour or in-between fruit.
Side-by-side comparison
- Flavor: Sweet = mild and candy-like. Sour = sharp and tangy.
- Kitchen use: Sweet = eat fresh. Sour = cook with.
- Growing needs: Identical. Both want full sun, good drainage and warmth.
- Tree size and care: Identical. The difference is all in the pods.
Growing tamarind (sweet or sour)
The good news: both types grow the same way, and tamarind is one of the toughest tropical fruit trees you can plant. Based on University of Florida IFAS Extension guidance:
- Sun: Full sun.
- Soil: Very adaptable. It handles sandy, rocky and alkaline soils, including South Florida limestone, as long as drainage is good.
- Water: Water regularly during the first year. Established trees are very drought tolerant.
- Wind and salt: Tamarind is wind-resistant and tolerates some salt, which makes it useful in coastal yards.
- Cold: Best in zones 10–11. Mature trees can survive brief dips to around 28°F, but young trees should be protected from frost.
- Size: Tamarind grows slowly but can eventually become a large shade tree. It takes pruning well, so you can keep it smaller. It's even a popular bonsai subject.
- Feeding: Feed young trees lightly every 2–3 months in the warm season with a balanced fertilizer.
Can I grow tamarind in a pot?
Yes. Tamarind tolerates container life and pruning very well. In central or north Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas or anywhere with regular freezes, grow it in a large pot (move up to 15–25 gallons over time) and bring it into a garage, sunroom or bright room when frost threatens. In a container it will stay much smaller than in the ground.
How long until tamarind fruits?
Seedling tamarinds are slow, often taking 5 years or more to bear. Grafted or air-layered trees, cloned from mature fruiting trees, can fruit in about 3–4 years. Pods are ripe when the shell turns brown and brittle and the pulp inside is soft and sticky. Ripe pods can hang on the tree for weeks, and harvested pods store well in the fridge.
So which should you plant?
- Plant sweet tamarind if you want a fruit to snack on fresh, kids will be picking from the tree, or you want something unusual to share.
- Plant sour tamarind if you cook a lot of Indian, Thai, Mexican or Caribbean food and want the classic tangy paste and drinks.
- Can't decide? Sweet tamarind still makes excellent agua de tamarindo with less sugar, so it's the more versatile choice for most home growers.
Easy ways to use tamarind
- Agua de tamarindo: Shell a handful of pods, soak the pulp in warm water for 30 minutes, mash, strain, then sweeten and chill.
- Tamarind paste: Simmer the pulp in a little water, push it through a strainer, and freeze in an ice cube tray for cooking.
- Fresh snacking: With sweet tamarind, just crack the shell, pull out the pulp and enjoy (spit out the seeds).
Plant a sweet tamarind this season
Our Sweet Tamarind tree is grown by Tony in Miami and is a 3-gallon tree, 24 inches or taller. It's a bigger tree for less than many online nurseries charge. Pair it with more of Tony's home-grown trees:
Looking for a gift? Try the Chocolate & Tamarind Gift Set or Tony's 4 Favs bundle. Browse all of Tony's home-grown trees.
We ship nationwide (except California, Arizona and Hawaii). New customers save $10 on orders of $150+ with code WELCOME10. Questions? Text Tony at 786-774-2125.
Sources: University of Florida IFAS Extension publications on tamarind and tropical fruit culture. Growing results vary with climate and care.
