Yes, I do own a refractometer. And yes I do seem to be able to see the difference between lower quality brix produce and higher brix produce...although getting higher quality is near impossible these days. Higer brix foods tend to have a very deep pigment to them...for instance strawberries. If they are higher brix they are deep red and firm with no white in the centre...the highest brix strawberries I ever had was this summer and they were like candy and their centres were red and they were very deep red on the outside....very easy to see the difference between these farmers market strawberries and the ones you get at the supermarket that were obviously picked early as they have white patches on them. Then I had some carrots that I bought from the farmers market in August....with a nice pigment and they were so fresh looking and smooth with no little "hairs" or "roots" growing along their sides. They again tasted like candy.

Look at lemons...easy to see higher quality brix ones. They have thinner skins and are more smooth and you can "feel" the juice in the higher brix lemon when you squeeze it. Plus as I learned here on curezone higher brix lemons have lines radiating from the "flower" end on the skin...the more lines the more minerals in the lemon.



I think my refractometer has trained my eye towards looking for certain qualities when choosing produce. I must admit that I don't use it as often as I should.

Striveon