The melon is eaten raw out of hand or made into milkshakes, smoothies, and ice cream. The melon's flavor is variously described as a combination of pumpkin, sweet potato, candied yams, maraschino cherries with the texture of an avocado. Some consider the melon to be an aphrodisiac[citation needed].

The brown skin has a texture somewhere between sandpaper and the fuzz on a peach. The melon's texture is creamy and sweet. To tell when a mamey sapote is ripe, peel off a fleck of the skin to see if it is pink underneath. The flesh should give slightly, as with a ripe kiwifruit.

The mamey sapote is related to other sapotes as naseberry, abiu and canistel but unrelated to the black sapote (Diospyros digyna) and white sapote (Casimiroa edulis). It should not be confused with the Mammee apple (Mammea americana).