The rubrics regarding food have traditionally been things like nutrition, deliciousness, and convenience. Advances in food science over the past fifty years, however, have added a new requirement in innovations: novelty. It is no longer enough for a food to taste good and store well. It must also raise eyebrows, stimulate the imagination and provoke spasms of delight.
These are foods like Go-Gurt, bacon chocolate, liquified cheese in a tube, Cap’n Crunch’s Oops! Choco Donuts cereal, energy bars flavored like carrot cake, and Gatorade in flavors like “Be Tough” and “No Excuses”. If the average grocery store carries 47,000 products, there’s a good chance that you’ll come across at least a few hundred items that will make you say “whoa”. It’s true.
On the higher end of the food spectrum there’s molecular gastronomy. And somewhere in the middle are Grāpple® brand apples, a Willy Wonka-esque product consisting of fresh crunchy apples that are engineered to taste like grapes. Yes. This is not fiction! Grāpple® brand apples launched nationwide in 2004, to the mixed delight and confusion of schoolchildren and novelty food bloggers everywhere. The company describes its product as “similar to biting into a very sweet Fuji apple, and then swishing your mouth with concorde grape juice.”
Being exceedingly curious about such a product, I contacted one of the owners and Head of Marketing and Media Todd Snyder for a quickie questionnaire:
Where did the idea for Grāpple brand apples come from?
The apple industry has been looking for new tastes for many, many years. But the only way of accomplishing this (when thinking ‘inside the box’) was to cross popular or unique apple varieties with other prominent apple varieties. This creates apples which have a tarter taste, sweeter taste, blend of sweet/tart, different textures, colors, etc., but doesn’t combine taste treats of non-apple flavors or products which may very well be outstanding in combination.
Think of the different types of Peanut Butter…crunchy, or creamy — but one day this flavor was combined with Chocolate, and this combination was amazing!
Thus, our R & D department at our family business, C & O Nursery of Wenatchee, Washington, began extensive testing of flavoring apples. While many items (different flavors, different apples), produce different combinations – some very good – the combination of Fuji with Grape was a truly outstanding taste experience — totally unique in the fruit/apple world.
Awesome! How are Grāpple brand apples made?
While there are many steps involved (I can’t go into specifics due to the patent application), the basic process involves bathing a specific type of apple for a specific period of time, under a strict set of other criteria. At no time is the apple injected or punctured in any way.
What’s your favorite way to eat a Grāpple?
Fresh out of the warehouse – nothing finer!
If you could combine the tastes of two other fruits, what would you combine?
I’ll say Pineapple with Coconut – cuz I like Pina Coladas! Great taste without the alcohol.
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