D196 is a durian often associated with Johor. But the registration details actually list the origin as Melaka.

The official name is Simpang Permata. It is often known as wang bu liao (忘不了) in Chinese which means unforgettable. It is sometimes labeled as kim leng or Empurau which a play on the Chinese words wang bu liao.

While there is a considerable amount of D196 trees in Johor plantations, it can be quite rare to come by. Even when the season’s harvest hits it’s peak, it’s seldom found on the shelves of durian sellers.

This is because consumers who love bitter durians, tend to love D196. And many can reserve them early for themselves. Or that when they do come across it, they place a bulk order.

Another reason for this is that it is as moody as D24 in terms of how consistent the quality is. By this, I mean that it can often have ripeness issues especially for big sized ones.

The yield in terms of seeds to husk ratio is rather low. Don’t be surprised to find that a 1kg fruit to contain only 2 rooms of fruitlets. But the flesh is thick and sometimes you can find very small and flat seeds which somewhat makes up for the low number of fruitlets.

Sometimes a durian can contain only 1 room of fruitlets. But it can be a huge lobe of flesh as humungous as D88 xiao tian tian.

Even though the fruitlets usually carry a pale creamish colour, the aril can often carry a very dark bruise. The type that will sent durian hunters squealing with delight.

When they appear to be beige or cream colour, there is usually a dark undertone filtered by a thin translucent aril membrane.

While playing around with this durian, I noticed that the hue changes dramatically when pictured under the sun and under the shade. I don’t know what kind of sorcery this is. Maybe the camera just automatically changed it’s settings when under the sun.

But if this is a D196 glitch of the matrix, it could explain why this durian is often observed to have dark bruises.

The sun is able to bring out the dark undertone for our eyes to see.

The flesh is soft but not rated as smooth or silky. The bitterness profile is almost in the same league as tawa D162. So those who love tawa would most probably love D196 too.

Amusingly, even though this is a soft-fleshed durian, it can retain it’s quality very well even if you leave the durian unopened for a day or two.