As with most new apples these days, the fruit is sold under marketing names that are trademarked. Small growers lose access to trees of potentially valuable varieties, and consumers may pay more than for a variety that all can plant, but the licensed growers are rewarded for their investment (typically about $40,000 an acre) and quality remains higher. Most elite new varieties are offered by breeders to a limited number of large licensees under a “managed variety” business model, developed over the last two decades, which restricts plantings and sets quality standards.
#COSMIC CRISP APPLE MAC#
Test marketing should begin in 2017, said Mac Riggan, the company’s marketing director. Chelan Fresh, a company based north of Wenatchee, is planting substantial acreage. Big growers need something that tastes good and ships, not just a novelty, yet until now such a variety has proved as elusive as the Sasquatch.Īt his relatively warm location, the flesh develops with unattractive mottling, but in cooler Washington growing areas, it is a gorgeous deep pink. But most, reflecting their crab apple ancestry, are too tart and astringent to be commercially viable. Red-fleshed apples originated in Central Asia and were first noted by Western scientists at the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens in London in 1830. Such varieties would be novel and attractive, the breeders hope, and could be touted for their reputed health benefits. Many breeders around the world have been trying for years to develop apples with sweet red flesh, pigmented, like red apple skin, with antioxidant-rich chemicals called anthocyanins. Juici, which will also appear that year, has the crispness of Honeycrisp and the firmness of Braeburn, with an appealing balance of sweetness and tartness. The University of Minnesota has introduced two varieties that ripen in early August, a month before Honeycrisp, and have somewhat zestier flavor: SweeTango, introduced in 2008 and now widely available, and MN55, which will be given a more lyrical name and will be sold in 2017. (Suitability for cooking, however, is not a primary goal for most breeders.) Growers are rushing to plant other new varieties, derived from Honeycrisp, that are easier to produce, ripen earlier and store longer in good condition. (It is now available only to Washington growers.) So many growers wanted to plant it that the university had to hold a drawing to allocate trees, and some 1.5 million - enough to stock more than 1,000 acres - have been ordered. Evans’s predecessor, but the fruit won’t be available until 2019. Evans uses the traditional method of applying pollen of one parent tree to the flowers of another, then planting the seeds of the resulting fruit, waiting five years for seedlings to bear, and evaluating tens of thousands of candidates for each eventual variety.Ĭosmic Crisp was hybridized in 1997 by Bruce Barritt, Dr. “If you market something as highly aromatic and don’t deliver, you’re not going to get any repeat purchasers, are you?” she said.ĭeveloping a new variety, from the initial cross to the store display, is a protracted and painstaking process. Evans, 49, grew up in England savoring highly aromatic Cox’s Orange Pippins, and loves that style of apple, but worries that it has to be harvested at optimal ripeness to fully develop its fragrance. For example, it is only mildly aromatic compared with the best-flavored heirloom apples, which offer an added dimension of intensity and complexity akin to that of fine wines.ĭr. That may not sound romantic, but it’s a game changer.Ĭosmic Crisp, of course, is a commercial variety, with qualities far different from those of older varieties known as heirlooms. By contrast, Cosmic Crisp, which is high in both sugar and acidity, not only tastes great off the tree, but also retains a balanced flavor and crispness all year, even after weeks in a warm kitchen. It is low in the three leading Washington varieties - Red Delicious, Gala and Fuji - and drops in storage, leaving apples tasting flat. Firmness is crucial because it helps apples keep longer, and supermarkets demand year-round availability.Įven more important for extended eating quality is acidity. Its flavor is inconsistent and fades in long storage, and it is maddeningly difficult to grow.Ĭosmic Crisp, a cross of Honeycrisp and Enterprise, is firmer but not too hard to bite, and much easier for farmers and packers to manage. But for all its popularity, the apple is soft, quickly dissolving in the mouth.
Honeycrisp, introduced in 1991 by the University of Minnesota, set the standard for crispness, juiciness and upscale pricing.