D101 vs D24 Durian: Which Should You Buy

The label problem, dealt with first

Search “D101 vs D24” and most pages will hand you a flavour comparison and move straight on. That skips the actual story. In Singapore and much of Malaysia, the durian sold under the name D101 is very rarely the durian officially registered as D101. It is D168, registered as Mas Johor and also sold as Hajah Hasmah or Mas Muar. The substitution is widespread enough, particularly in Johor, that most people who believe they have eaten D101 have eaten D168 instead.

The true D101 is a different, older variety: Bangkok Tree 16, a Thai-origin seedling registered in 1970 from Serdang, Selangor. Almost nobody buying “D101” at a stall has tasted it. What follows, then, is not really D101 against D24. It is D168 Mas Johor, sold under a borrowed name, against D24 Sultan, a clone old enough and established enough that sellers rarely bother faking it. Stating that plainly is most of the reason this page needs to exist.

D24 carries no such identity problem. It is registered as D24, also called Sultan, and that name has stayed attached to the right fruit for decades.

What D24 actually is

D24, or Sultan, is one of the oldest clones on Malaysia’s durian register, registered on 30 November 1937 and traced to Bukit Merah in Perak. It was the reference variety most Malaysians measured other durians against before Musang King took that role. D24 is a medium fruit, typically 1.5 to 2.5kg, with a thin husk, fine and fairly even thorns, and a distinctive spine-free patch near the base, the “20 cent sign” that separates it from Musang King’s star pattern at the base. See the full write-up on D24 for every identification marker.

XO is not a separate clone and is not really part of this comparison. It is D24 left to ferment longer on the tree, which pushes the flavour toward alcoholic and pungent. If a stall lists XO with its own D number, that is a mistake, not a different fruit.

What is actually sold as D101

D168, the fruit doing D101’s job at most stalls, was registered in 1989 as Mas Johor. It is a medium to large fruit, commonly 2 to 3kg, round to oval, with a dark green to olive husk, brown-tipped conical spines, and an inward fold in the shell that buyers describe bluntly as a “butt crack”. None of that helps you at the point of sale if the seller has already decided to call it D101. It only matters once you check the fruit yourself, rather than trusting the label. Full detail is in the D101 write-up, including why the mix-up happens so often.

Flesh, texture and the sweet-to-bitter axis

This is where the two fruit genuinely differ, once you accept which fruit you are actually eating.

D168 sold as D101 sits at the sweet, low-bitterness end. The flesh is thick, soft and custard-like, close to paste-like when properly ripe, with honey sweetness, a light egg-and-vanilla note, and occasionally a faint sour-berry finish. There is very little bitterness to work through, which is exactly why it is such a common first durian.

D24 sits a step further along the same axis. It is also creamy and custard-like, but the flavour is properly bittersweet: sweetness up front, followed by a lingering bitter edge that the D101-labelled fruit does not really have. Its aroma is milder than Musang King’s but more assertive than D168’s.

Neither fruit approaches Musang King’s intensity. Between the two, D168-as-D101 is the softer, gentler, more forgiving eat, and D24 is the one with actual bite at the finish.

How to tell what you are being sold

Ask the seller directly which fruit is in front of you: true D101 (Bangkok Tree 16), D168 (Mas Johor), or D24 (Sultan). Many will answer honestly once asked plainly, because “D101” has become a market category as much as a registered clone name.

Beyond asking, check the base and the husk yourself. D24’s tell is the coin-sized bald patch near the stem, with no star pattern. The D101-labelled fruit’s tell is the inward fold in the husk and a darker green, more heavily spined shell. Flesh colour is not reliable evidence for either fruit: D168 can show yellow, gold or reddish tones depending on the individual fruit, and colour alone proves nothing about the clone. The guide to choosing durian covers ripeness checks that apply whichever variety you land on.

Price: rough positioning

Neither of these is a Musang King-priced fruit, and season swings the actual numbers around too much to quote a fixed figure here. See the 2026 season update for current pricing. In relative terms, D24 generally sits a notch above D168-sold-as-D101 on a stall’s board, reflecting its status as an established, correctly named clone rather than a catch-all market label. The D101 tag tends to sit at the more affordable end, partly because sellers use it loosely for whatever soft, mild fruit they have on hand that day. Treat this as a general tendency rather than a fixed ratio, and always compare whole-fruit prices with whole-fruit prices, not with packed flesh.

Who should buy which

If you want the mildest possible introduction to durian, soft and sweet with almost no bitterness to negotiate, the fruit sold as D101 (in practice, D168 Mas Johor) does that job well. There is nothing wrong with buying it on those terms once you know what it actually is.

If you want a fruit with a genuine, long paper trail and some bitterness at the finish, without Musang King’s intensity, buy D24 and ask for it by name. It rewards the question precisely because sellers rarely bother mislabelling it.

Either way, the two fruit are not really competing for the same buyer. One is chosen for its mildness, the other for being a known, older clone that still holds up decades on. See the full durian type register for how both fit alongside the rest of Malaysia’s clones, or the comparison index for other match-ups worth checking before you buy.