Mango Magnifique – Exotic Furniture Closer to Home

You probably have a jar of mango chutney in your fridge. Incidentally, I do so too. More incidentally, so do 6 million of us in the UK. I don’t blame us; the stuff is delicious. Pork tenderloin, naan or regular old curries, mango chutneys go with just about anything (except tide pods, but they’re not meant to be eaten anyway. Take note, YouTube). With my skills of deduction, I’ve found that mango chutney is in fact made of man-goes, which in turn grow on mango trees. Sherlock who?

The Unsung Underdog –

Speaking of mango trees, these little hunks of cellulose don’t get much attention. It’s like being the big brother of the genius Oxford graduates who also happens to be a two-sport star; sure, you’re older and all but you’re forever doomed in your upstart sibling’s shadow. As Trump would have said, “Sad!”

But, like all underlings, the mango tree is coming out into the spotlight. People seem to have realised that while the mango (and by extension mango chutney) is positively delectable, mango wood – while being rather woody in flavour – is brilliant in a multitude of other ways, For example, you probably wouldn’t make a table out of mangoes, unless it’s a fancy pants modern art sculpture or something. But you would as-suredly like to a make a table out of mango wood.

Mango wood is seriously sturdy stuff. It can hold an obscene amount of weight. Besides, if the somewhat disconcerting saturation of mangoes is anything to go by, mango trees are – to put it lightly – quite abundant. Basic economics dictates abundance = low price, and who doesn’t love cheap stuff. So we have

Mango Wood – Inexpensive / Strong / Grainy / Great to look at

I’m loving this already. Mango is unfairly delicious as it is, but now mango trees too? This is honestly too much awesomeness in one piece of flora. One more thing – it’s actually nigh water proof. You know how water spills (seriously, a single drop) screws up your furniture every single time? Now you know about the divine powers of mango. Thank me later.

Hard for Finders, Great for Keepers –

As I mentioned, mango wood was always in the mango-shaped shadow of, well, mangoes. Fortunately for the serial liquid spillers among us, that’s changing. Besides the run-of-the-mill mahogany and teak (No, MDF doesn’t count), some enlightened companies are finally rolling out mango wood ranges. You’re not likely to find some in IKEA, however independents? Sure. Artisan Furniture and Achica have some quality pieces to pick up. Artisan particularly already has an exhaustive mango collection. Way ahead of the curve, those guys.

Somewhat surprising, mango trees – whilst being massively popularly in Asia – have not particularly caught on in the west. You’d think the wonderful texture, waterproofness and sheer delectability of mango would make them insanely popular, especially in chutney-mad UK. But nooooo, we seem to prefer teak, of all things. Sure, sourcing drives the cost sort of high but come on, it’s waterproof! No more spill marks ever again. That’s reason alone is good enough to treat yourself to some mango furniture. And maybe even get some mango chutney in the process.