Varieties

Hundreds of different varieties of sweet potato are grown around the world. They are most often divided into two main types by how they perform when cooked. The “soft” variety has orange flesh that cooks up soft and moist. The “firm” variety has creamy white or yellow flesh that remains mealy and relatively firm. This is where the name confusion comes in. The firm variety was already being grown in the United States when the soft-fleshed type was introduced. To distinguish them, the latter were called yams because they resembled the unrelated African yam of the genus Dioscorea, and the term stuck. The boniato, or Cuban sweet potato, is a third type of sweet potato, with flesh similar to the firm, mealy type. The following are some of the most widely available sweet potato varieties.