The Mackinaw peach is an invention of the sitcom Seinfeld.

But I could not avoid thinking of the fake fruit when reading this story in The National about a real fruit:

The Alphonso mango, also known as … the “king of fruit”.

I am not a mango connoisseur. But they are extremely popular in this part of the world, particularly in India, the home of the Alphonso mango.

The news here, and it is big enough to make the front page of tomorrow’s edition of The National, is the European Union import ban on the Alphonso mango.

The EU is citing “significant shortcomings” in the sanitary conditions of raw plant products from India, including the Alphonso mango and four types of vegetables.

Among other things, the mangoes are said to arrive in the EU with fruit flies and other pests that could harm domestic crops in Europe.

Indian growers are unhappy about the ban, because the EU was/is a major importer of the Alphonso mango, which has a two-month season — unlike the Mackinaw peach, which was ripe only two weeks a year — or at least that is how it was explained in Episode 106 of Seinfeld, in 1995, entitled The Doodle.

(And if you want to see Kramer carrying on about the fictional peach, have a look at this Youtube video.)

The Kramer character declares that eating a Mackinaw peach is like having “a circus in your mouth!”

Fans of the Alphonso mango seem to believe the same of their fruit.

As The National wrote: “The pure sweetness of the Alphonso remains embedded in the memories of people who eat them.”

And: “Among the 400 varieties of mango, the Alphonso alone provokes long and fervent discussions on Chowhound, the online bulletin board for foodies around the world. The approach of the Alphonso season sends ripples of excitement among users …”

A poet and nobel laureate from India, Rabindranath Tagore, once described a person as “a perfectly ripe Alphonso mango — not a trace of acid or fibre in his composition”.

So, the upshot of the EU ban is the idea that more Alphonsos will be available for purchase in the UAE, and that those of us in the Gulf region may actually get some of the best Alphonsos, which typically are sent to Europe, the thinking goes, where higher prices can be charged.

One of the local “hypermarkets”, named Lulu, has already declared this week to be “mango madness” … and the madness apparently will be perfected by the greater availability, at a lower cost, of the noble Alfonso.

Like the Mackinaw, except real. I may even try one.