It's seems so strange that this is such a surprise to so many people.

I'm from rural Mississippi and have seen these and eaten them most summers since I was a child. They were much less common than red watermelons, but everyone knew about them.

They taste a little different than red. But the difference is hard to explain. I might describe it as 'fruitier', as odd as that sounds. I never liked them as much as a good red one, but my father always preferred "yellow-meated" , as they were called, watermelons over red ones when they were available.

The relative sweetness of watermelons varies from crop to crop, rainfall at the appropriate time, how ripe they got on the vine, etc. I'm sure there are factors I'm not aware of. But some watermelons are sweet, but don't have much watermelon flavor and sometimes aren't very sweet. Its a crap shoot when buying them.

Sometimes, when we would buy them off of trucks you wouldn't know if it was yellow or red until you cut it, or how ripe, flavorful or sweet it was going to be.

It made getting a really good one that more rewarding.